448:
How can radical change work for us? The thought of making big changes in our life, especially when they may not be understood by others, frightens us. Ethics frighten us. Our habits and addictions frighten us.
I grew up taking no notice of the animal body parts I was eating, yet I knew the sausages and ham and chops were once part of a living, breathing animal. Even as a child I knew they’d been killed for food for me ... but I decided to ignore it. Everyone knew it and everyone ignored it. We all ignored it together.
Ethical principles, when they become important, make short work of our old behaviours that we grew up with. Over the years I, like everyone else, acquired habits that made life easier and more pleasurable. The shops sold meat, cheese, chocolate, socks, shoes, jerseys, ice cream, hamburgers ... the list goes on and on. As far as I was concerned the ‘cost-to-me’ was all that mattered - was it too expensive, was it unhealthy? It never occurred to me that there was any other expense - that it all came at huge expense to the animals who were losing their lives, so that their bodies could be made available to humans, by way of humans persecuting them and executing them.
Even as a child I knew that it was all unethical but I did it, I ate them. I hid behind the fact that I didn’t know much detail. But when I did know the detail I still did it. I valued lifestyle above everything. I knew the theory - that there were no human-survival reasons why everything on that long list could not be dropped. But I wanted more than survival, I wanted a varied lifestyle. And that, by definition (I knew) was unethical. Giving up all of that would not be easy. I could either live unethically or with difficulty.
Now that difficulty was specifically a radical alteration of a daily habit, especially a habit concerning three-times-a-day food plus the doing-without very many items of daily use. That would need determination because there are just so many useful and wonderful things I’d be avoiding. Projecting how it might be - it’s almost as if my whole idea of pleasure must be sacrificed, as if only a dull life could be ethical. And yet these animals (I would say to myself) - can I let the atrocity continue?
But I still wobbled. “By going vegan I will probably fail, and can I afford to take that risk? For a start, I don’t think I’ve got the self-discipline to voluntarily kick a favourite habit. Truth to tell, I probably don’t want to kick it, I prefer to continue being as I am, especially since no one is pushing me on the matter”.
The human will project, hedge bets, try to play it safe. One day when things start to go wrong with the body we think about change. We remember way back, when we said to our self, “When the time comes I’ll change. I will change … but in my time”.
As our body fails and we see, for instance, that our eating habits are making us ill, even then we’re still reluctant to change. It’s the pleasure-association we can’t let go of. The body fails nonetheless and we wonder what we’re facing for the rest of our life? Not only can we not ignore symptoms (of the ageing body) but we can’t face the upheaval of ‘change’ and we have a nagging toothache-of-a-conscience which keeps telling us that we should have changed long before things got so out of hand.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
We’re mad for plenty
443:
We probably all dream of having plenty, indeed that there should be plenty for all. We dream that eventually humans will fix things up for the planet and all our violence and oafishness will dissolve like Scotch mist.
Ironically, this is more or less the justification for today’s bad behaviour, in the convenient tradition of ‘being cruel to be kind’. By becoming truly dominant over lesser life forms (including lesser ‘human’ life forms) we see ourselves as the ‘benevolent despots of Planet Earth’. Call it evil, call it crazy, it matters not a jot since dominators always self justify according to their end-aim (it being to ‘save the world’ or to ‘save our souls’).
It all goes wrong since too much happens along the way that we don’t bargain for. We’re seduced into cutting corners and outsmarting the opposition. We practise violence because it brings us a certain type of advantage with which we can win things and get what we want. It’s too easy to forget when we cross the line in our rush to establish our position of humans-staying-in-charge. We have to do it - violation, violence, stealing and exploiting. It all seems straight forward and legitimate since the world seems ripe for the picking. There seem to be no adverse outcomes … so, we put on hold our lofty aim of saving souls or saving the world and instead enjoy being on a roll. It’s only later that the awful consequences of what we’ve done become apparent, and by then it’s almost too late!
You look at almost anyone, at dinner, tucking in to the muscle tissue of a dear sweet executed animal. There’s not a thought given to that animal, anymore than any mass murderer thinks about his victims. And yet we have the capacity to think about the whole sordid process of bringing animals to their death so that lump of tissue can rest on the dinner plate. The human is superior to other animals, we are the dominant ones and we believe there’s no need to consider our victims.
The people responsible for great empires have always thought they were God’s chosen people. The belief that we are superior gives us our right to rule. Each empire fails and it’s central weaknesses show up in the endgame, when they collapse. Humans who’ve ‘made it’ don’t learn from the past mistakes. We think we can only learn by re-experiencing the whole cycle of ‘succeeding then failing’, so we go through the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime, until eventually we learn. But only eventually.
We probably all dream of having plenty, indeed that there should be plenty for all. We dream that eventually humans will fix things up for the planet and all our violence and oafishness will dissolve like Scotch mist.
Ironically, this is more or less the justification for today’s bad behaviour, in the convenient tradition of ‘being cruel to be kind’. By becoming truly dominant over lesser life forms (including lesser ‘human’ life forms) we see ourselves as the ‘benevolent despots of Planet Earth’. Call it evil, call it crazy, it matters not a jot since dominators always self justify according to their end-aim (it being to ‘save the world’ or to ‘save our souls’).
It all goes wrong since too much happens along the way that we don’t bargain for. We’re seduced into cutting corners and outsmarting the opposition. We practise violence because it brings us a certain type of advantage with which we can win things and get what we want. It’s too easy to forget when we cross the line in our rush to establish our position of humans-staying-in-charge. We have to do it - violation, violence, stealing and exploiting. It all seems straight forward and legitimate since the world seems ripe for the picking. There seem to be no adverse outcomes … so, we put on hold our lofty aim of saving souls or saving the world and instead enjoy being on a roll. It’s only later that the awful consequences of what we’ve done become apparent, and by then it’s almost too late!
You look at almost anyone, at dinner, tucking in to the muscle tissue of a dear sweet executed animal. There’s not a thought given to that animal, anymore than any mass murderer thinks about his victims. And yet we have the capacity to think about the whole sordid process of bringing animals to their death so that lump of tissue can rest on the dinner plate. The human is superior to other animals, we are the dominant ones and we believe there’s no need to consider our victims.
The people responsible for great empires have always thought they were God’s chosen people. The belief that we are superior gives us our right to rule. Each empire fails and it’s central weaknesses show up in the endgame, when they collapse. Humans who’ve ‘made it’ don’t learn from the past mistakes. We think we can only learn by re-experiencing the whole cycle of ‘succeeding then failing’, so we go through the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime, until eventually we learn. But only eventually.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Life in the countryside today
441:
Animal farming is just about the only reliable source of income for people who live in the countryside. They use the ‘resources at hand’. They farm animals, sometimes because the profits are better than from growing crops and sometimes because the land can only support animal grazing. The more marginal the land the more cattle or sheep will be ‘run’ on it.
Converting the land’s energy is the name of the game. When the primary ‘converter’ is an animal it is regarded merely as a machine for ‘making good use of the land’. The fact that a ‘farm’ animal is a sentient being with individual needs like any other animal seems to be ignored by the human exploiter, who tailor’s the animals’ lives to suit human convenience.
The cruelty factor has exponentially increased over the past 60 years owing to ever fiercer competition for market share and the vast explosion of (hungry) populations in urban concentrations that have stimulated it. The threat of competition has made intensive farming inevitable. For example, a chicken farmer who might have had hens pecking around the farm yard now has to do unspeakable things to thousands of hens, caging them in sheds under artificial lighting, or he’ll go out of business.
The countryside, the land, the peace and beauty of it, Nature itself, has become a location for indoor factories housing animals which are being kept like factory machinery for mass production of meat, milk, eggs and skin. That’s the only way today that people who live in the country can earn a living and stay on their farms. If they refuse to intensify their operations then, short of moving to the city to find scarce work, they will go out of business and face financial ruin. There are many rural suicides connected with farms going bust.
Like many other highly destructive pursuits, like deforesting by foresters or denuding the land by miners, animal farmers have to destroy the beauty of the countryside they love, just to stay alive. We the consumer can’t mine copper or cut down timber or make food. We’re dependent on these primary producers. We feel we have to support those people who can bring us the products we want, to maintain our rich-living lifestyles.
If we decide NOT to support exploitative industries it means we’ll have to forgo many items ‘needed’ by us ... and without them we believe we’ll go mad.
Animal farming is just about the only reliable source of income for people who live in the countryside. They use the ‘resources at hand’. They farm animals, sometimes because the profits are better than from growing crops and sometimes because the land can only support animal grazing. The more marginal the land the more cattle or sheep will be ‘run’ on it.
Converting the land’s energy is the name of the game. When the primary ‘converter’ is an animal it is regarded merely as a machine for ‘making good use of the land’. The fact that a ‘farm’ animal is a sentient being with individual needs like any other animal seems to be ignored by the human exploiter, who tailor’s the animals’ lives to suit human convenience.
The cruelty factor has exponentially increased over the past 60 years owing to ever fiercer competition for market share and the vast explosion of (hungry) populations in urban concentrations that have stimulated it. The threat of competition has made intensive farming inevitable. For example, a chicken farmer who might have had hens pecking around the farm yard now has to do unspeakable things to thousands of hens, caging them in sheds under artificial lighting, or he’ll go out of business.
The countryside, the land, the peace and beauty of it, Nature itself, has become a location for indoor factories housing animals which are being kept like factory machinery for mass production of meat, milk, eggs and skin. That’s the only way today that people who live in the country can earn a living and stay on their farms. If they refuse to intensify their operations then, short of moving to the city to find scarce work, they will go out of business and face financial ruin. There are many rural suicides connected with farms going bust.
Like many other highly destructive pursuits, like deforesting by foresters or denuding the land by miners, animal farmers have to destroy the beauty of the countryside they love, just to stay alive. We the consumer can’t mine copper or cut down timber or make food. We’re dependent on these primary producers. We feel we have to support those people who can bring us the products we want, to maintain our rich-living lifestyles.
If we decide NOT to support exploitative industries it means we’ll have to forgo many items ‘needed’ by us ... and without them we believe we’ll go mad.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The end is profit
440:
Ending animal farming. It won’t come about over night but it will happen if the public has the guts to stand up for non-violence. Until that happens farmers are going to feel fairly safe, with a steady market demand and with promises of protection-from-prosecution for their cruelty to animals.
Knowing that ‘what you do’ is safe from prosecution and therefore a safe way to generate money helps people do things they shouldn’t. Animal farming has now, more than ever before, become a cruel practice. It is now bigger and grubbier than ever, but it’s still in the business of feeding the population. Its husbandry practices are overlooked out of ignorance or excused as being ‘part of tradition’. The blind spot people still have about cruelty is that it isn’t wanton or sadistic but essential to the cost-cutting that fends off competition. And that means food is home-grown and capable of being sold to us at a low price ... and that’s the justification.
Ending animal farming. It won’t come about over night but it will happen if the public has the guts to stand up for non-violence. Until that happens farmers are going to feel fairly safe, with a steady market demand and with promises of protection-from-prosecution for their cruelty to animals.
Knowing that ‘what you do’ is safe from prosecution and therefore a safe way to generate money helps people do things they shouldn’t. Animal farming has now, more than ever before, become a cruel practice. It is now bigger and grubbier than ever, but it’s still in the business of feeding the population. Its husbandry practices are overlooked out of ignorance or excused as being ‘part of tradition’. The blind spot people still have about cruelty is that it isn’t wanton or sadistic but essential to the cost-cutting that fends off competition. And that means food is home-grown and capable of being sold to us at a low price ... and that’s the justification.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Concern for the downtrodden
I’d like to dive into the warm waters of altruism but not just to glow with goodness but to float in a nice mix of both selfish and unselfish reasoning. To float buoyantly in the knowing of the reason for my concern. I’d like to know that this ‘mix’ could be a valuable source of strength which I’d need to maintain my concern. And that would be always there as a springboard for my decision to act. Yes, concern for animals enslaved, yes, concern for myself in my intent to support them. It’s a reciprocal scheme - they provide me with a celebrated cause and in return I provide them with whatever support I have to offer. So, behind any act of altruism is my own need to feel the power of it in me. I want to show my concern by doing something quite dramatic, extreme and radical, something inconvenient but ultimately challenging.
It sounds pretty good doesn’t it. But how do I know I can keep up that mood, that drive, that intention? Some days it’s possible that I might NOT want to dive into these ‘warm waters’ but just carry on as usual, with no act, no reason to act, no change in my life.
Where am I now? Am I feeling advanced and self developed or untouched by all that? Surely there are two sides of me - the side which identifies with the ideal, the other side aligned to the do-nothing in me. I fluctuate between these two sides all the time, some days feeling very empowered other days bored by that goal - optimistic one day, pessimistic the next.
Overall, the warmth of the waters of altruism are attractive, not in terms of being ultimately good but in the cure-all of altruism, the mix-form of it, balanced between the selfish and unselfish. It’s worth trying out. I know in the past I’ve behaved badly and still do perhaps. Unless I consciously move away from bad behaviour my imagination will never be sparked and nothing will happen. As soon as I decide to act, to move myself along, I might just see how others have decided to go that way. I look at those involved in environmental consciousness raising. It’s led them into new daily habits that seem to feed back to help them grow, even very rapidly. And that’s percolated down to all of us, so that we all, these days, are thinking ‘environment’ much more than we ever used to. They’ve empathised with the beauty of the environment and want to conserve it. That’s how many of us feel about the beauty of the animals.
Awakening that consciousness might seem slow, perhaps because most of us are still not near enough to the starting line. Some, however, have poked their noses out of their burrows and noticed the need for a big change of outlook. They’ve rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and a determination has formed, to move away from the old attitudes, to not continue doing whatever one feels like doing. To move away from feelings of entitlement. To move away from being destructive and dominating. To have the courage to ignore competition and stop trying to outdo other advantage-takers. To look at life altruistically, for the greater good, but with a nice mix that doesn’t preclude selfish needs.
It sounds pretty good doesn’t it. But how do I know I can keep up that mood, that drive, that intention? Some days it’s possible that I might NOT want to dive into these ‘warm waters’ but just carry on as usual, with no act, no reason to act, no change in my life.
Where am I now? Am I feeling advanced and self developed or untouched by all that? Surely there are two sides of me - the side which identifies with the ideal, the other side aligned to the do-nothing in me. I fluctuate between these two sides all the time, some days feeling very empowered other days bored by that goal - optimistic one day, pessimistic the next.
Overall, the warmth of the waters of altruism are attractive, not in terms of being ultimately good but in the cure-all of altruism, the mix-form of it, balanced between the selfish and unselfish. It’s worth trying out. I know in the past I’ve behaved badly and still do perhaps. Unless I consciously move away from bad behaviour my imagination will never be sparked and nothing will happen. As soon as I decide to act, to move myself along, I might just see how others have decided to go that way. I look at those involved in environmental consciousness raising. It’s led them into new daily habits that seem to feed back to help them grow, even very rapidly. And that’s percolated down to all of us, so that we all, these days, are thinking ‘environment’ much more than we ever used to. They’ve empathised with the beauty of the environment and want to conserve it. That’s how many of us feel about the beauty of the animals.
Awakening that consciousness might seem slow, perhaps because most of us are still not near enough to the starting line. Some, however, have poked their noses out of their burrows and noticed the need for a big change of outlook. They’ve rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and a determination has formed, to move away from the old attitudes, to not continue doing whatever one feels like doing. To move away from feelings of entitlement. To move away from being destructive and dominating. To have the courage to ignore competition and stop trying to outdo other advantage-takers. To look at life altruistically, for the greater good, but with a nice mix that doesn’t preclude selfish needs.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
We don’t need to be such oafs
437:
What is it when people behave badly, that lets them NOT think ill of themselves? Why aren’t we fearful or even superstitious about what we do? Perhaps we’re born with a conscience but it’s voice is silenced by us as we grow up. Perhaps we’re victims of a slow, almost imperceptible process that moulds normality into the shape of how things have always been done - I’m okay because I’m doing no worse than others.
Is it arrogance that makes us feel special and privileged, as if we humans are the ultimate saviour of the planet – and is being collectively ‘messianic’ not so very different from being barbaric?
Are humans meant to be the dominant species? Are we the ones who have a role to play in taking primitive life forms and making them into more sophisticated beings? It’s as if humans have swallowed a sci-fi fantasy of this dominator-creator role, to conveniently let us remain the way we are. We’ve tried to mould the landscape to our design, dominate Nature by extracting food and energy from it, and we’ve always done it with a heavy, brutal hand.
We’re dazzled by some of the really wonderful things humans have achieved but we’ve conveniently forgotten the price we paid for our achievements, by collectively damaging the very beauty we sought to improve. On the level of personal ambition we’ve been driven by the ‘me-first’ principle, saying “I must succeed. I have about seventy or eighty years of life in which to do it and if I fail I will be unhappy”.
This sense of hurry leads us to shortcut what should never have been shortcut. We’ve betrayed the greater good and neglected long-term purpose.
The Vegan Animal Rights movement has embarked on a long struggle which could end overnight but it’s likely that the time isn’t yet ripe for mass change. So all we can do for now is to lay foundations for another generations’ sake which is probably the main reason why people don’t seem to be embracing vegan principles - perhaps we aren’t yet ready to be part of a collective drive, to bring the consciousness of humans to a point where we cooperate to transform our species. That process is a conscious changing towards altruistically motivating ourselves.
Once our chief interest is in the moulding of a new type of human, with different motivations, we’ll no longer be brutes but more like angels, guardians, protector spirits, healers and repairers. We’ll be more contemplative, less concerned with surviving, procreating and slowly evolving and more interested in the need for transformation.
If all this sounds rather grandiose it may be because in so many ways we are still crude versions of a much more sophisticated and intelligent being to come.
What is it when people behave badly, that lets them NOT think ill of themselves? Why aren’t we fearful or even superstitious about what we do? Perhaps we’re born with a conscience but it’s voice is silenced by us as we grow up. Perhaps we’re victims of a slow, almost imperceptible process that moulds normality into the shape of how things have always been done - I’m okay because I’m doing no worse than others.
Is it arrogance that makes us feel special and privileged, as if we humans are the ultimate saviour of the planet – and is being collectively ‘messianic’ not so very different from being barbaric?
Are humans meant to be the dominant species? Are we the ones who have a role to play in taking primitive life forms and making them into more sophisticated beings? It’s as if humans have swallowed a sci-fi fantasy of this dominator-creator role, to conveniently let us remain the way we are. We’ve tried to mould the landscape to our design, dominate Nature by extracting food and energy from it, and we’ve always done it with a heavy, brutal hand.
We’re dazzled by some of the really wonderful things humans have achieved but we’ve conveniently forgotten the price we paid for our achievements, by collectively damaging the very beauty we sought to improve. On the level of personal ambition we’ve been driven by the ‘me-first’ principle, saying “I must succeed. I have about seventy or eighty years of life in which to do it and if I fail I will be unhappy”.
This sense of hurry leads us to shortcut what should never have been shortcut. We’ve betrayed the greater good and neglected long-term purpose.
The Vegan Animal Rights movement has embarked on a long struggle which could end overnight but it’s likely that the time isn’t yet ripe for mass change. So all we can do for now is to lay foundations for another generations’ sake which is probably the main reason why people don’t seem to be embracing vegan principles - perhaps we aren’t yet ready to be part of a collective drive, to bring the consciousness of humans to a point where we cooperate to transform our species. That process is a conscious changing towards altruistically motivating ourselves.
Once our chief interest is in the moulding of a new type of human, with different motivations, we’ll no longer be brutes but more like angels, guardians, protector spirits, healers and repairers. We’ll be more contemplative, less concerned with surviving, procreating and slowly evolving and more interested in the need for transformation.
If all this sounds rather grandiose it may be because in so many ways we are still crude versions of a much more sophisticated and intelligent being to come.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Tempting towards exploiting
434:
If there were one great goal for humans it would surely be to stand up for the truth, no matter what the consequences. If we are a mixture of good and evil, love and fear, then we are equipped to smell the ‘ugly’ and in the ‘bad’ and move away from it. That means resisting temptation when it’s going to lead to harm, not just for ourselves but for anything. When it comes to hurting animals you either think according to vegan principle or you’re at the opposite end, and you hold a ‘to-hell-with-it’ attitude. And that brings you to exploitation. At first it’s difficult but the more we do it the easier it gets until we don’t notice doing it at all.
We each try to ease our load in life, and that leads to a me-first attitude. Life’s made easier with slaves and taking advantage of the weak. If you could get away with it why wouldn’t you have a slave to clean your house. Or maybe you’d pay someone, or maybe you’d have machines to help. Despite any harm we’re doing to the atmosphere by pumping pollution into it why wouldn’t we own a car if we could? From slave-owner I’ve come right across to something almost all people are, car owners. If we wanted to clean up our act on any level whatever, from where would our restraint come? Why would we consider restraining ourselves from taking part in Society’s abuse of animals?
If we have no system of personal restraint it’s likely we don’t care about behaving badly. If we see no REASON to be restrained it may be because we don’t expect to be confronted about what we do. If what we do is done discretely, so that we don’t draw attention to ourselves unnecessarily, it’s possible to behave badly, with only the minimum of judgement from others.
Religion tells us that God notices and that may be superstition but it is one form of restraint. Superstition itself is possibly another, perhaps even stronger. What we sow we reap, etc. Good and bad karma, etc.
Of course none of this matters if we already have a system that prevents us making fools of ourselves. I think it’s having a philosophy. And the philosophy behind vegan principle may be difficult sometimes but it won’t keep us awake at night.
If there were one great goal for humans it would surely be to stand up for the truth, no matter what the consequences. If we are a mixture of good and evil, love and fear, then we are equipped to smell the ‘ugly’ and in the ‘bad’ and move away from it. That means resisting temptation when it’s going to lead to harm, not just for ourselves but for anything. When it comes to hurting animals you either think according to vegan principle or you’re at the opposite end, and you hold a ‘to-hell-with-it’ attitude. And that brings you to exploitation. At first it’s difficult but the more we do it the easier it gets until we don’t notice doing it at all.
We each try to ease our load in life, and that leads to a me-first attitude. Life’s made easier with slaves and taking advantage of the weak. If you could get away with it why wouldn’t you have a slave to clean your house. Or maybe you’d pay someone, or maybe you’d have machines to help. Despite any harm we’re doing to the atmosphere by pumping pollution into it why wouldn’t we own a car if we could? From slave-owner I’ve come right across to something almost all people are, car owners. If we wanted to clean up our act on any level whatever, from where would our restraint come? Why would we consider restraining ourselves from taking part in Society’s abuse of animals?
If we have no system of personal restraint it’s likely we don’t care about behaving badly. If we see no REASON to be restrained it may be because we don’t expect to be confronted about what we do. If what we do is done discretely, so that we don’t draw attention to ourselves unnecessarily, it’s possible to behave badly, with only the minimum of judgement from others.
Religion tells us that God notices and that may be superstition but it is one form of restraint. Superstition itself is possibly another, perhaps even stronger. What we sow we reap, etc. Good and bad karma, etc.
Of course none of this matters if we already have a system that prevents us making fools of ourselves. I think it’s having a philosophy. And the philosophy behind vegan principle may be difficult sometimes but it won’t keep us awake at night.
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