2013:
In the process of change, if
we feel confident not to land ourselves in serious trouble, then we might
change. Surely as progressive, model citizens, but attitudinally regressive, we
may still have allegiance to the ‘Me-First’ club.
There’s a ‘me-first’ in all
of us. But it prevails mostly when we’re eating for pleasure and comfort.
“Don’t touch my food”, says the omnivore to the vegan. But there’s no idle
reasoning behind our interferance. We’re suggesting that the most me-centred
activities, like eating delicious but harmful animal-based foods, are so in
need of change that our very potential as humans is currently being wasted,
like rotting fruit fallen from the tree. We are, most of us, victims of
self-perpetuating, harmful habits. (From meat to cheese to cakes and
confections and eggy concoctions, all of which have in some way been extracted
from the bodies of fellow, sentient beings).
Changing ‘me-first’ doesn’t
have to mean ‘me-last’. More like ‘me-second’. We need to step back from the attitude
of we-the-dominator-species, in order to contemplate other matters affecting
us, like addiction, material insecurity or being vulnerable to peer pressure.
Me-second is a sign of growing-up. Specifically, these particular habit changes
should come about not because they’re causing us harm but because they harm
animals.
A habit-change, from omnivore
to herbivore, starts with boycotting. By no longer encouraging animal
incarceration, we no longer support our own bad habits. Only by boycotting can
we make a sufficiently strong statement – enough, both to save our own souls
and let what we say to be taken seriously. We do need people to pay attention
to what we have to tell them, and we achieve this by shifting the emphasis from
‘me’ to ‘the other’.
What sort of world is it we
dream of? Just something nice for ourselves or a dream of uncaged animals?
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