412:
In the long term, the animals, what of them? What becomes of them? Do we retire all of them? Do we restrict their breeding to prevent their numbers expanding? It would certainly be costly even if there were a decline in meat eating and if animals were no longer being bred into existence.
At first I imagine the move to retire and protect those which still survive would be done in the spirit of atonement. We would need special funding, perhaps a special tax to pay for it all. But how would people respond to such a tax in these economically and ecologically straightened times? It’s hard enough to stir people into agreeing to a carbon tax, to help reduce global warming. An animal tax to save animals from exploitation would need a whole different attitude to our animal charges, who are presently treated with no consideration at all.
Attitudes will change as people no longer have an interest in the farming of animals or the provision of meat and dairy products and then our attention will be more trained on wanting to do something for them.
Perhaps it’s quite hard to imagine this new brand of human being, inspired by a new set of ethics, but perhaps with a solid trend of vegetarian eating, people will naturally come to hate exploitation. They’ll want to disassociate from their primitive forebears, and make a point of saving animals, in much the same way that we do today, with abused cats and dogs.
The setting up of safe houses, or rather animal sanctuaries, might not be such a money-burden after all. Imagine the savings made and all the other advantages of a meatless society. Apart from ending the killing, the advantages to our health would be dramatic. The turning of attitude would coincide with a strong wish for a more intelligent and peaceful world. As ‘refusniks’, who no longer eat meat, no longer ‘do’ war, we would be breaking through into an altered state of consciousness, the results of which we can hardly imagine in our present primitive state of mind. The idea of creating sanctuaries for farm animals may not be as far fetched as it seems.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Information is optimism
411a:
So much becomes clear when you see it through a vegan’s eyes. On the one hand we see all too clearly the horror of animal abuse and, on the other, the brilliant breakthrough plant foods represent. It’s worth becoming vegan just for that one insight.
Young people (and a few older ones too) might already be there and already be getting some insights by looking for them and finding them. The raw information is certainly available, and for those who can use technology the essentials can be picked up in a matter of moments. Even very young people may already know more than we older ones, about certain important things.
Here we have people already networking information, in readiness for that day when really important information is the ‘cluing-up’ essential to take more control of one’s personal lives. One’s future. And that, like nothing else, brings a sense of optimism into our lives.
Once I became surer of my ground (where I was no longer being exposed to misinformation and dodgy eatables) I felt my own self-confidence grow … and I think that showed in my demeanour. Who knows, it might have even made me more attractive. Once I was confidently addressing the big problems of the day, I was keen to network what I was finding out. Then I felt at least half way to solving many of my own main problems. I felt half way towards becoming a repairing individual, because I was working to realise an optimistic society. No, I wasn’t part of the present society, I was in fact moving away from it, but I felt as though I belonged more comfortably to a society that was to come.
So much becomes clear when you see it through a vegan’s eyes. On the one hand we see all too clearly the horror of animal abuse and, on the other, the brilliant breakthrough plant foods represent. It’s worth becoming vegan just for that one insight.
Young people (and a few older ones too) might already be there and already be getting some insights by looking for them and finding them. The raw information is certainly available, and for those who can use technology the essentials can be picked up in a matter of moments. Even very young people may already know more than we older ones, about certain important things.
Here we have people already networking information, in readiness for that day when really important information is the ‘cluing-up’ essential to take more control of one’s personal lives. One’s future. And that, like nothing else, brings a sense of optimism into our lives.
Once I became surer of my ground (where I was no longer being exposed to misinformation and dodgy eatables) I felt my own self-confidence grow … and I think that showed in my demeanour. Who knows, it might have even made me more attractive. Once I was confidently addressing the big problems of the day, I was keen to network what I was finding out. Then I felt at least half way to solving many of my own main problems. I felt half way towards becoming a repairing individual, because I was working to realise an optimistic society. No, I wasn’t part of the present society, I was in fact moving away from it, but I felt as though I belonged more comfortably to a society that was to come.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Fixing dinner
411:
Animal Rights is the ultimate confrontation. It is social justice put to its test, arguing why animals deserve rights and why we no longer need animal issues stirring up our guilt.
So, people are reluctant to discuss it. Surprise, surprise! You can understand why though, because there’s nothing to discuss. The society we know, accept, have become used to has been built on our right to exploit animals. Dismantle that ‘right’ by giving animals rights and immediately the abattoirs are closed, and meat, milk, eggs and cheese automatically disappear. Is it any wonder that people are reluctant to lose these ‘goodies’ and the thousands of edible items made with animal derivatives?
Plant-based diets seem so radical and, one might presume, difficult. The very thought of restricting one’s eating to foods from the plant kingdom is probably unnerving. But from the other side it doesn’t seem that way at all. Once the safety of the diet is established and some of the ‘replacements’ are discovered, ‘going vegan’ isn’t such a big deal. We hope others will do the same because it follows that the more who go vegan the greater the variety of vegan products will appear in shops, thus all becoming that much easier for people to make the transition from omnivore to herbivore.
All that isn’t going to happen until vegan food stops looking like war-time rations, especially these days when food has become such a comforter. The health-only vegans might mean well but their emphasis on whole foods, raw foods and plain eating might be off-putting whereas ‘wicked’ vegan food which emphasises good-tasting food might serve as a better transition.
In this highly pressured society where we do need comforting. The security blanket is food. And that’s why is has to be attractive, look attractive and be attractive to the taste. That can be quite a challenge for home-cooking. It’s not just at the restaurant where we can enjoy our food, it’s at home where food must be able to rival the omnivore’s cuisine. Many of us can’t afford to visit restaurants however good they are.
For most of us food means preparing our own, and that means every night’s dinner which has to have a looking-forward-to feel about it. Only then will ‘being vegan’ be something to look forward to.
Animal Rights is the ultimate confrontation. It is social justice put to its test, arguing why animals deserve rights and why we no longer need animal issues stirring up our guilt.
So, people are reluctant to discuss it. Surprise, surprise! You can understand why though, because there’s nothing to discuss. The society we know, accept, have become used to has been built on our right to exploit animals. Dismantle that ‘right’ by giving animals rights and immediately the abattoirs are closed, and meat, milk, eggs and cheese automatically disappear. Is it any wonder that people are reluctant to lose these ‘goodies’ and the thousands of edible items made with animal derivatives?
Plant-based diets seem so radical and, one might presume, difficult. The very thought of restricting one’s eating to foods from the plant kingdom is probably unnerving. But from the other side it doesn’t seem that way at all. Once the safety of the diet is established and some of the ‘replacements’ are discovered, ‘going vegan’ isn’t such a big deal. We hope others will do the same because it follows that the more who go vegan the greater the variety of vegan products will appear in shops, thus all becoming that much easier for people to make the transition from omnivore to herbivore.
All that isn’t going to happen until vegan food stops looking like war-time rations, especially these days when food has become such a comforter. The health-only vegans might mean well but their emphasis on whole foods, raw foods and plain eating might be off-putting whereas ‘wicked’ vegan food which emphasises good-tasting food might serve as a better transition.
In this highly pressured society where we do need comforting. The security blanket is food. And that’s why is has to be attractive, look attractive and be attractive to the taste. That can be quite a challenge for home-cooking. It’s not just at the restaurant where we can enjoy our food, it’s at home where food must be able to rival the omnivore’s cuisine. Many of us can’t afford to visit restaurants however good they are.
For most of us food means preparing our own, and that means every night’s dinner which has to have a looking-forward-to feel about it. Only then will ‘being vegan’ be something to look forward to.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The wall
410:
When you see our society through vegan eyes so much becomes clear about our habits - the selfishness, violence, stupidity and weakness of humans. Early habits lock us into later ones, so selfishness urges us to eat what we like which means a whole lot of animals are killed for the food we want, which settles into a lifetime of eating habits, which leads to ill health ‘old-age’ diseases. The doctor says it’s just getting old and we can expect it, and we believe the doctor. No-change is prescribed. We spend a lifetime eating poisonous foods and developing a guilty conscience for conspiring with animal violators. Vegans just don’t suffer from any of this, because they are eating plant foods.
Learning the vital information about plant foods is done quite easily today. Nothing can be kept secret. The animal industries are exposed. But we might not even be looking, content with the way things are, intimidated by the massive propaganda wall we would have to climb over. This wall has been built in our minds during our formative years and most people accept the attitude that animals are safe to eat and it isn’t wrong to imprison them and kill them.
Once we dare to climb that wall the mind starts to change. Instead of avoiding information it looks for it ... and finds it surprisingly easy to see what life’s like on the other side. If we’re suspicious of what we’ve been taught and have enough rebellious spirit, we might go exploring.
Young people (and a few older ones too), using technology to access information, start to take control of what they learn, and learn different values for a different lifestyle. Traditions and conventions and authorities and mass media will scream the opposite values at us. In answer to that we have instinct and logic, and that helps us to climb the wall. If we want to we can disassociate with the old familiar dark, violent world. We can be optimistic about our own future and want the best for the planet and, by simply eating plant foods we can help defend the innocent but exploited animals.
On the other side of the wall we swop foods, swop attitudes and eventually notice we’ve also swopped body chemistry. I found even my own small brain functions better when not weighed down with animal foods. I’m no longer feeling unwell, catching colds or having too little energy. It’s all a thing of the past.
For young people especially, the great advantage of having read about animal rights and vegan diets is that by having this new perspective on life, they’re more self-confident and feel better educated - less manipulated by having been kept ignorant of important issues .
As ‘the wall’ crumbles behind us we’re already half way to solving Earth’s main problems by being less wanting, less selfish. We’re already half way to repairing damage and leading our society towards becoming more optimistic.
When you see our society through vegan eyes so much becomes clear about our habits - the selfishness, violence, stupidity and weakness of humans. Early habits lock us into later ones, so selfishness urges us to eat what we like which means a whole lot of animals are killed for the food we want, which settles into a lifetime of eating habits, which leads to ill health ‘old-age’ diseases. The doctor says it’s just getting old and we can expect it, and we believe the doctor. No-change is prescribed. We spend a lifetime eating poisonous foods and developing a guilty conscience for conspiring with animal violators. Vegans just don’t suffer from any of this, because they are eating plant foods.
Learning the vital information about plant foods is done quite easily today. Nothing can be kept secret. The animal industries are exposed. But we might not even be looking, content with the way things are, intimidated by the massive propaganda wall we would have to climb over. This wall has been built in our minds during our formative years and most people accept the attitude that animals are safe to eat and it isn’t wrong to imprison them and kill them.
Once we dare to climb that wall the mind starts to change. Instead of avoiding information it looks for it ... and finds it surprisingly easy to see what life’s like on the other side. If we’re suspicious of what we’ve been taught and have enough rebellious spirit, we might go exploring.
Young people (and a few older ones too), using technology to access information, start to take control of what they learn, and learn different values for a different lifestyle. Traditions and conventions and authorities and mass media will scream the opposite values at us. In answer to that we have instinct and logic, and that helps us to climb the wall. If we want to we can disassociate with the old familiar dark, violent world. We can be optimistic about our own future and want the best for the planet and, by simply eating plant foods we can help defend the innocent but exploited animals.
On the other side of the wall we swop foods, swop attitudes and eventually notice we’ve also swopped body chemistry. I found even my own small brain functions better when not weighed down with animal foods. I’m no longer feeling unwell, catching colds or having too little energy. It’s all a thing of the past.
For young people especially, the great advantage of having read about animal rights and vegan diets is that by having this new perspective on life, they’re more self-confident and feel better educated - less manipulated by having been kept ignorant of important issues .
As ‘the wall’ crumbles behind us we’re already half way to solving Earth’s main problems by being less wanting, less selfish. We’re already half way to repairing damage and leading our society towards becoming more optimistic.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Googling eggs
408:
Because we can ‘Google’ we don’t necessarily need to learn from other far more long-winded sources. Anyone’s access to the Net helps to shed light on big and small issues as quickly as it occurs to us to want to find out about something. If I can’t spell ‘kew’ my dictionary tells me it’s spelled ‘queue’ as long as I know the first letter to ‘look up’. To Google something is easier than using a dictionary – it’s there in a flash.
Take the subject of ‘egg’ for example. We can Google it and find out about its nutritional qualities, how it is produced and what foods contain egg. With that information at hand (if we use eggs) we can learn how to use them and if we don’t use them we can find why we don’t need them and of course ethically why we shouldn’t use them. This ability to gather information relatively painlessly makes us better informed and more self-reliant. We know it’s ridiculous to trust what political leaders or corporate advertisers say (they never tell the truth!) and we can’t necessarily trust our teachers and priests.
If a lot of what we’ve been taught is no longer believable, we have to start again, to search for information and come to rely more and more on ourselves. Via our computers we can re-examine things for our self instead of accessing inside information by joining up with an organisation whose beliefs we might not completely agree with and whose information we may not entirely trust. Institutions and organisations often have reason to skew the facts to win support and truth goes out of the window.
To gather information from a variety of sources, to become our own judge and jury, one needs to search widely, and all this is possible by using our computers intelligently. It’s not fool-proof but it’s a whole lot easier and far less time-consuming for getting what you want. And if we need basic information the Net is more forthcoming than trawling through books, attending specialist courses or making do with limited information when so much of what we should know about, on many sensitive subjects, has been deliberately withheld. Because the Net is a world wide network fed and read by many millions of people across the world, it’s information is scrutinised by very many people and made available for anyone who want to know. And it’s free. Once you’ve Googled the egg you can know all there is to know about this item, sufficient to make a carful judgement of it.
Because we can ‘Google’ we don’t necessarily need to learn from other far more long-winded sources. Anyone’s access to the Net helps to shed light on big and small issues as quickly as it occurs to us to want to find out about something. If I can’t spell ‘kew’ my dictionary tells me it’s spelled ‘queue’ as long as I know the first letter to ‘look up’. To Google something is easier than using a dictionary – it’s there in a flash.
Take the subject of ‘egg’ for example. We can Google it and find out about its nutritional qualities, how it is produced and what foods contain egg. With that information at hand (if we use eggs) we can learn how to use them and if we don’t use them we can find why we don’t need them and of course ethically why we shouldn’t use them. This ability to gather information relatively painlessly makes us better informed and more self-reliant. We know it’s ridiculous to trust what political leaders or corporate advertisers say (they never tell the truth!) and we can’t necessarily trust our teachers and priests.
If a lot of what we’ve been taught is no longer believable, we have to start again, to search for information and come to rely more and more on ourselves. Via our computers we can re-examine things for our self instead of accessing inside information by joining up with an organisation whose beliefs we might not completely agree with and whose information we may not entirely trust. Institutions and organisations often have reason to skew the facts to win support and truth goes out of the window.
To gather information from a variety of sources, to become our own judge and jury, one needs to search widely, and all this is possible by using our computers intelligently. It’s not fool-proof but it’s a whole lot easier and far less time-consuming for getting what you want. And if we need basic information the Net is more forthcoming than trawling through books, attending specialist courses or making do with limited information when so much of what we should know about, on many sensitive subjects, has been deliberately withheld. Because the Net is a world wide network fed and read by many millions of people across the world, it’s information is scrutinised by very many people and made available for anyone who want to know. And it’s free. Once you’ve Googled the egg you can know all there is to know about this item, sufficient to make a carful judgement of it.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Access to information
405:
Having ready access to reliable information changes everything. Vegan information makes for new possibilities. We can ‘Google’ anything, and with practice, we can weed out the sound information from the rubbish. There’s no excuse for ignorance. Decades ago, we would spend all day in the library, scratching around for vital information. Now, it takes no time at all and most information is reliably sourced. There’s a thrill in finding it, a ‘eureka’ feeling. Learning via the Internet has been made possible because imaginative people have set it up for us, the engineers, programmers, web site writers.
In the area of Animal Rights there’s a lot we can usefully learn. Each day another vital gap is filled, on a subject that’s so important. Say we were after information about veganism. We can go to information banks set up by altruistic people who’ve dedicated their time to setting it down, since they know it can be so useful. In the past, there was too little reliable information, and easier for the Animal Industries and their friends to keep information from us. They simply mis-informed. But where once we had information kept from us, now we’re swamped by it! But now at least we have the choice - to take it on board or ignore it.
In the future we’ll ask ourselves how we could have swallowed so much misinformation and why it all went so unchallenged. In the future we won’t be able to recall just how information-starved we were, back then.
But there’s panic in the house. It’s a race against time. Our education has gaps. We’ve been taught virtually nothing about how our body works concerning nutrition. In practical terms, we haven’t been taught how to prepare food or how to be equipped to live without making ourselves ill. Our conscience is vulnerable too because we’ve never learnt about the living conditions of ‘food’ animals or how animal foods are poisonous to our system. Additionally, we’ve only recently learnt about the environmental impact of producing animal foods.
Today's easy access to information equips us with all this potential for finding things out - for designing our own entirely new lifestyle.
Having ready access to reliable information changes everything. Vegan information makes for new possibilities. We can ‘Google’ anything, and with practice, we can weed out the sound information from the rubbish. There’s no excuse for ignorance. Decades ago, we would spend all day in the library, scratching around for vital information. Now, it takes no time at all and most information is reliably sourced. There’s a thrill in finding it, a ‘eureka’ feeling. Learning via the Internet has been made possible because imaginative people have set it up for us, the engineers, programmers, web site writers.
In the area of Animal Rights there’s a lot we can usefully learn. Each day another vital gap is filled, on a subject that’s so important. Say we were after information about veganism. We can go to information banks set up by altruistic people who’ve dedicated their time to setting it down, since they know it can be so useful. In the past, there was too little reliable information, and easier for the Animal Industries and their friends to keep information from us. They simply mis-informed. But where once we had information kept from us, now we’re swamped by it! But now at least we have the choice - to take it on board or ignore it.
In the future we’ll ask ourselves how we could have swallowed so much misinformation and why it all went so unchallenged. In the future we won’t be able to recall just how information-starved we were, back then.
But there’s panic in the house. It’s a race against time. Our education has gaps. We’ve been taught virtually nothing about how our body works concerning nutrition. In practical terms, we haven’t been taught how to prepare food or how to be equipped to live without making ourselves ill. Our conscience is vulnerable too because we’ve never learnt about the living conditions of ‘food’ animals or how animal foods are poisonous to our system. Additionally, we’ve only recently learnt about the environmental impact of producing animal foods.
Today's easy access to information equips us with all this potential for finding things out - for designing our own entirely new lifestyle.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Computers
404:
We pick up information from all over the place, but these days mainly from the Net. Let’s say you’re worried about there being something missing in the food you’re eating these days. What if you generally felt ill or heavy or queasy all the time? Let’s say you have ‘conventional eating habits’ and then … suddenly you stumble over a web site or some information that suggests a radical change. It occurs to you to try something a bit different.
Let’s say you’re used to those mild but annoying stomach aches and that it might be ‘guilt-gut’, and you know you get it from eating rubbish food and animal-based foods. So, you’re determined to try something different, keeping your meals safely plant-based. Of course, you mightn’t know at the time that a vegan diet will solve this problem for you, but once you try it, once you’re into ‘clean plant food’, you find the ‘machine’ runs smoother. What then? You aren’t stupid, you know the old conventional animal-based foods and fast foods are there waiting in the wings, ready to take over again. Their taste still attracts. You know they could seduce you back. You also know the new regime of foods will lead onto other things. You’re torn between immediate satisfaction and re-educating taste buds for the sake of long term effects.
If you’re moving towards veganism you might have been reading up on it, getting familiar with food ideas, filling your head with positive sounding information ... and yet, still, you’re quaking in your shoes. You take a plunge - eat a whole week of vegan food. You find you’ve got a stomach full of powerful food. “At last!” Now you feel optimistic. You say to yourself “If only I can keep this up”.
Avoiding tempting animal foods, eating only plant-based - the very simplicity of the idea is intriguing. As you move into optimism and veganism you see how pessimistic the old food regime makes you feel, as if you’ve given up, as if the food you’ve been eating not only clogs you up but blocks your escape. The old meat and dairy diet is like a prison, like a great constipator.
You wonder why it has taken so long for the penny to drop. Perhaps you regret all the damage it’s done to you, perhaps how complicit you’ve been in the whole conventional eating habit and animal abuse thing. You see what these weird vegans have been on about, and feel thankful that your ‘information machine’ has introduced you to a whole new world, a whole better way of viewing your life.
Computers, ah yes, they make us feel lucky to be alive today. They provide a conduit between ourselves and what is going on beyond.
We pick up information from all over the place, but these days mainly from the Net. Let’s say you’re worried about there being something missing in the food you’re eating these days. What if you generally felt ill or heavy or queasy all the time? Let’s say you have ‘conventional eating habits’ and then … suddenly you stumble over a web site or some information that suggests a radical change. It occurs to you to try something a bit different.
Let’s say you’re used to those mild but annoying stomach aches and that it might be ‘guilt-gut’, and you know you get it from eating rubbish food and animal-based foods. So, you’re determined to try something different, keeping your meals safely plant-based. Of course, you mightn’t know at the time that a vegan diet will solve this problem for you, but once you try it, once you’re into ‘clean plant food’, you find the ‘machine’ runs smoother. What then? You aren’t stupid, you know the old conventional animal-based foods and fast foods are there waiting in the wings, ready to take over again. Their taste still attracts. You know they could seduce you back. You also know the new regime of foods will lead onto other things. You’re torn between immediate satisfaction and re-educating taste buds for the sake of long term effects.
If you’re moving towards veganism you might have been reading up on it, getting familiar with food ideas, filling your head with positive sounding information ... and yet, still, you’re quaking in your shoes. You take a plunge - eat a whole week of vegan food. You find you’ve got a stomach full of powerful food. “At last!” Now you feel optimistic. You say to yourself “If only I can keep this up”.
Avoiding tempting animal foods, eating only plant-based - the very simplicity of the idea is intriguing. As you move into optimism and veganism you see how pessimistic the old food regime makes you feel, as if you’ve given up, as if the food you’ve been eating not only clogs you up but blocks your escape. The old meat and dairy diet is like a prison, like a great constipator.
You wonder why it has taken so long for the penny to drop. Perhaps you regret all the damage it’s done to you, perhaps how complicit you’ve been in the whole conventional eating habit and animal abuse thing. You see what these weird vegans have been on about, and feel thankful that your ‘information machine’ has introduced you to a whole new world, a whole better way of viewing your life.
Computers, ah yes, they make us feel lucky to be alive today. They provide a conduit between ourselves and what is going on beyond.
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