The whole Animal Rights thing

923:

What happens to billions of animals each day is enough to give the average sensitive person night mares. Vegans can at least tell themselves that they are not to blame, whereas non-vegans can’t do that.

For those who are unwilling to give up their complicity with all that nightmare stuff, they have to train themselves NOT to think about it at all. And, if challenged they can claim to know very little about the ‘animal thing’, or even hope to deflect criticism by claiming not to WANT to know.

Some people are able to convince themselves animals are lesser beings and we humans are simply exercising our rights over them, as the dominant species; we have certain privileges which animals are not entitled to, namely the right to an enjoyable life and the use of every available resource, of which animals are one.

For those useful animals we keep imprisoned on farms, in cages, in pens, behind barbed wire, there’s no life; every one of them is doomed to an existence of the meanest kind, suffering brutality and being denied any sort of natural life, and when they’re fat enough or they are no longer economically viable they are executed. Humans have got it down to a fine art. The way we make ‘full use’ of the animal is all very efficient. It appeals to the practical and brilliant brain of the human.

If humans can see any way of taking advantage of them (of any resource in fact) we will take it. We never voluntarily forgo our advantage, especially over the matter of animal-use. If we do have to hunt them, because they can’t be domesticated, the hunting is done with the same ruthless efficiency with which we farm them (just look at the kangaroo hunting practices if you want an example of ruthlessness!).

If an animal’s main value is in the production of useful by-products, like eggs or milk, their day of execution is determined by their rate of production; when that drops below a certain level, they get the chop.

            With our knowledge of biology we understand how a body will produce (suitable foodstuffs for humans), we understand how they mate, reproduce, secrete, fatten and generally respond in a productive way to our needs. And we have, over centuries of experimentation, learnt that they will still deliver, despite their most appalling living conditions. Humans know that animals will endure life-long imprisonment and unanaesthetised procedures and still be productive. They will submit to the manipulation of their breeding cycle and to eating inappropriate food and blatant fattening. And then go passively to their execution at our behest. And why would they not? They have nothing to fight back, they are completely in our power and must know on some level that the human can do with them as they please.

Humans are only interested in animals for what they can get out of them, mainly food and clothing as well as entertainment and companionship. Nothing else matters. If they receive any care at all it is the sort of care more to do with humans looking after a piece of their property than concerning their individual well-being.

Their right to a life or the conditions under which they are forced to live are of no interest to most humans, since other factors govern everything; where money is to be made from them and where competition is fiercest for ever-cheaper products, welfare standards are minimised in order to maximise outcome.

The consumer, hand in glove with the producers, cheers from the sidelines, not because they are sadists but in order to maintain a constant supply of the food or clothing product they expect to be available.

As typical humans, we expect good supply of the foods we are used to just as we might expect a good supply of water from a tap. If vegans are the thin end of the wedge, by potentially endangering supply, veganism will always be seen as a threat. 

Omnivores can’t help holding back the progress of our species

922: 

I know that maintaining an animal-food habit doesn’t ensure good nutrition; animal foods are the chief destroyers of good health, but I also realise that most people have a taste for animal body parts. The meat of animals, the by-products , anything from muscle tissue to bodily secretions.

The taste, the seductive, mouth-watering experience is never lost. What is it? The texture, the saltiness, the blood, the richness – there’s no one feature of animal product that explains the allure of these foods and the thousands of food products on the market containing animal ingredients, to which humans are universally drawn. Perhaps it’s the comfort of the repeated eating of familiar foods, forming a link between our childhood to the present day. Perhaps it’s the feeling of being part of a community of fellow humans who share the same type of food attraction. And who knows, maybe it’s the lust for eating the animal the human has come to dominate and enslave, confirming in us the feeling of being at the ‘top of the pile’, the superior being, the species that reigns supreme over all other life forms.

Whatever it is that is so attractive about the eating and using of animals, it clouds our better judgement and obscures the writing on the wall, which has long spelled out the dangers of these foods to our overall well being and health, not to mention our complicity with the cruelty that is part and parcel of animal farming and animal slaughter. Added to this fixation (which humans have about the need to make full use of animals) is a worrying tendency, amongst those who are supposedly better-informed, that the science behind the danger of eating animal protein is invalid; if it were true, that indulging in animal protein ruins one’s health you would see all people suffering ill health – but surely, that is exactly what seems to be happening. The next worrying tendency is that of the sleeping-conscience – that because everyone does it then it can’t possibly be something we should stop doing; and, if I stop condoning the cruelty it will make not a scrap of difference, because more than 99% of people will carry on regardless, despite what I do.

The problem for omnivores is that they are losing control of how they live; their lifestyle has somehow been fixed for them, and there is little point in trying to change it, especially not when taking on a vegan diet would impact on so many varied aspects of daily life. If this were a conspiracy to wreck the human species, the promotion of animal products would be a very neat way of succeeding.

As humans, living in the wealthy West, if we stopped using animal foods, we believe that we’d suffer terrible withdrawals. It is almost unimaginable for most people to stop, especially since food is one of the few remaining pleasures of life, which would be compromised if we gave away the things we love to eat.

One has to ask oneself upon what basis one might decide to boycott animal products. If it were an ethical boycott then logically we would have to eat nothing which contained animal products, knowing that they are often surreptitiously used in foods and may only be spotted if we are willing to study the fine print on the ingredients list (and even that might prove difficult since many are listed under the cover of words we won’t be familiar with, like gelatine, whey and albumin - bones, milk and eggs).

We humans are social animals. We eat together, and over our shared meals we talk and interact, sharing a common bond by eating the same sorts of food. And since no meal is thought to be complete without meat or at least some cheese or milk-derived product, ‘incomplete’ meals would lead to hunger and worse. Even if we did want to stop using ‘it all’, we’d have too little faith in our own willpower to stop altogether, and if we don’t make a complete break, then these yummy products will always sneak back onto our shopping lists and be pulled off the shelf into our shopping baskets.

It seems then we are doomed - neither logic nor ill health nor guilt nor environmental impact will stop us buying ‘animal stuff’, and therefore nothing will stop the killing of animals for food, and therefore we will always continue participating in the sort of human activity that we can never be proud of. Our collective shame over this prevents us from moving on as a species.

Having empathy for food-animals is rare, so let’s say that at the moment, here in Australia, ‘it’ isn’t happening. Animals don’t touch our hearts enough. Our omnivore friends are brick walls when it comes to animal liberation and vegan diets.

And yet there are people coming over - vegans do exist and are growing in number, leaving behind their omnivore friends with their omnivore habits, who are developing empathy for exploited animals and willing to go it alone. Any important trend has to start somewhere and in this matter vegans are stepping out in front, to prove that it can be done and indeed should be done.

How to avoid mental health issues – final

921:

Is it that we think our mental health depends on what others think of us and not what we think of ourselves? Is it that other people, including ourselves, might think highly of anyone who lives the same sort of lifestyle?

            So, what happens when we forgo the approval of others, for the sake of making a radical change in our own lifestyle. The answer is likely to be that we effectively isolate ourselves, socially. Very scary. Probably this is why more people aren’t switching over to vegan food and vegan thinking.

We all fear for our own mental health if we’re alone; everyone knows there’s not much kudos in being vegan, or even vegetarian. Being alone is always frightening.

If the omnivore is complacent about their own mental health, or down-plays the guilt factor, or ignores good sense and conscience, they may not get far past where they are now. Their habits, which at worst are barbaric, at best mindless, are set down during our younger years and get locked into place when we become adults. There’s no chance of these social habits, especially those concerning food and communal eating, being changed unless one is willing to strike out alone. Vegans do strike out, very often without anyone to support them in their change of lifestyle. And what happens then can only be known to vegans themselves, because one’s lifestyle seems to change on so many levels, just by eating certain foods and boycotting others. One’s social life has to alter accordingly. Vegans can’t expect anyone who is not vegan to understand how it feels. there’s a sense of liberation in the body, when it’s being fed real food for the first time. Energy levels increase, there’s an absence of stomach troubles, a welcome change in the smell of the toilet, the smell of the breath, and the eyes look just that bit brighter. Any list of benefits and changes can’t convey the difference between the days of animal-eating and the days of no-animal-eating. But, over all the changes, the one that stands out most clearly (to the vegan at any rate) is the release from a nagging, worrying, something’s-not-quite-right feeling. Call that mental health if you like.

BLOG ON HOLIDAY UNTIL DECEMBER 28TH - May your Christmas Day be a no-animal-bloodbath-day.

How to avoid mental health issues – part three

636: 

People who eat animal products are probably struggling with an addiction to them; they aren’t eating them for their nutritive value, although many believe that they are not quite poisonous. If one takes the time to look at these foods objectively, it doesn’t take too long to see the harm they do. And physically, their effects on our bodies, once recognised, once they are no longer used, as the ‘poisons’ drain from the body, then the cravings lessen. As days go by, the addiction weakens and the need for self-discipline is no longer an issue. In other words, the difficulty of giving up foods, which we once thought we couldn’t do without, lessens.

            Once this addiction problem is dealt with, we no longer see ‘animals’ as an amorphous group of clones. They become sovereign individuals. And then it’s just a short step to seeing them as irreplaceable, close friends  in that they’re sentiently-close to humans; they’re not ‘un-persons’, as Negroes or Jews were once seen by our less enlightened predecessors.

Isn’t it in the very nature of addiction that we shield ourselves from the truth about the addictive substance, in order to guarantee the supply of it? It’s a give-and-take deal we strike with the Animal Industries, our mass complicity with them bringing about the mass assault on animals. It’s probably the most insane thing humans have ever done, to give up so much of our birthright for so little. We say, “I can’t imagine life without milk in my coffee”, “My dear, life without lobster …”. Strange to think that our sanity and general health will let us ‘get away’ with this attack on our body and conscience every day. 

How to avoid mental health issues – part two

635: 

By depending on animals and taking our dependency to the point where we have enslaved them, we have lost the very strength we wanted to attain in the first place. I’d suggest that this has become nothing more or less than a mental health issue. We humans have become so ‘me’-oriented that we can no longer consider ‘the other’. We want to be mentally stable, we want to be able to feel sympathy, even empathy, but we are no longer make the connection between our own mental stability and the safety of certain animals. To bolster this illusion, that we need animal-based foods, we have had to create a belief that ‘animal’ food strengthens our brains and bodies. Science has shown that this isn’t true but that science has to be rejected, in order that we can maintain our ‘strong body and brain’.

The central belief, that mental health can look after itself as long as the mind and body is kept strong, has led us to the worship of the brain and the physique, so fast-thinking goes hand in hand with our admiration of physically powerful individuals. And these heroes of our civilisation have to ignore the gentler and simpler side themselves, and in consequence they are usually no strangers to violence. They don’t go around bashing people up, it’s more subtle in that they are Society’s leaders and by taking an active part in their violent society, give their seal of approval to it. They would soon lose their position in Society if they sympathised with vegan principle. 

Vegans are suggesting that anyone can test their own mental health by challenging their own dependency on animal products. It sounds a simple thing to do, on the face of it, it seems to make a lot of sense, since the dangers of this sort of food have been well enough chronicled for the last few decades, but we are not dealing with good sense. We’re really dealing with addiction, two addictions in fact. The first is a belief that one’s mental stability will be maintained in spite of one’s addiction to animal foods, the second is that we can retain our sanity despite making unethical choices (in what we choose to buy). 

How to avoid mental health issues – part one

634: 

Let’s say that billions of people know what they are doing, whenever they eat animal products. They know what goes on behind the scenes, what has to happen before the eggs or milk or meat arrive in the shops; they’d be very naive or ill-informed if they didn’t. But then, let’s say that, nonetheless, they continue eating them. Why don’t they stop? The question could be put another way: why would they want to?

Let’s now imagine something which is probably not even true yet - that there is as many as one percent of our community who are vegan or who are moving that way. It’s a tiny fraction of the population and a considerable number, nevertheless, who have begun to see their world in a substantially different way to the other 99%.

To this minority, animals aren’t seen as mere objects because, unlike inanimate objects, they accept that animals have a sense of their own identity and can, on an individual level, feel emotion and fear danger, just as we can. We can assume they don’t want to suffer, and that they aren’t happy about being the slaves of humans.

So, how can anyone ignore that? And how did we come to accept that we do what we do to them? And how did we lose our connection with them, and start to misuse them to the extent that, today, we are factory-farming them?

These questions must hang in the air, while we look at the way humans have gradually changed the way they’ve been getting their ‘animal’ foods; we’ve gone from hunter-gatherer of wild animals to jailers and captive breeders.

By deciding to separate ourselves from animals, we’ve made a ‘disconnect’ – we’ve gone from predator to jailer. Somewhere along the line we’ve said, “Why should we go to all the trouble and uncertainty of hunting animals when they can be held captive and made to breed, especially since we can breed docility into them and make them completely submissive to our will?”

If an animal can be brought to this state of being then why care about their feelings? Do their feelings matter?.

Vegans believe that animals are ‘individuals’, no less than any companion animal at home. If people want to believe that animals are incapable of feeling, or that they’re not individuals, then one must ask how we came to see them that way. Perhaps it’s likely that we’ve manipulated our value system in a most fundamental way; by needing to feel secure about our food supplies, we’ve had to warp one of our most important values (compassion) in order to suit our need to guarantee this particular food source.

When we sup with the Devil we sell our soul in exchange for short-term personal benefit; it’s a classic corruption of power that holds good for a short time (in evolutionary terms) and yet erodes the very foundation of our species. We take for granted the gifts we’ve been given - our ethics have been compromised and our health has been compromised to the point where we have become addicted to a source of food that we now can no longer do without. Along with that food comes all the ugliness imaginable. In a nutshell, we have created the diabolical cage and all the cruelty of the abattoir, and can no longer contemplate human life without these two ‘institutions’. By depending on animals and taking our dependency to the point where we have enslaved them, we have lost the very strength we wanted to attain in the first place.

They’re mere animals

633: 

“I’m not a fussy eater. I eat anything”, says the omnivore, deliberately misunderstanding the issue. “Why fix something that ‘ain’t broke’? Why fiddle with habits if we’re quite happy with the habits we have?”

In the mind of the modern man or woman, maybe there’s a small but nagging worry that something’s not quite right. But if it were wrong, if something were ‘broke’, you’d think you’d hear about it? Animals. How can it possibly matter, to stop eating or using them, when everybody throughout the world is making use of animals for food and clothing? Perhaps it’s possible that it’s not a contempt for animals that’s in question here, but that we’ve already given up on the human race; it’s within the common acceptance that humans are naturally violent and naturally uncaring of other species.

And anyway, we generally compartmentalise what we do, so that food shopping and how we think about animals are separate matters.

When we reach for that favourite food item on the supermarket shelf we take it on trust, that it is safe, legal and ethical. But do we hear a voice inside us questioning how we are choosing? We know that once we’ve grabbed it and dropped it in our basket we’ve already as good as consumed it, so we have to decide there and then whether to reach for it or not. If we decide NOT to, then we’re starting to connect two separate concerns, even to the detriment of our own convenience. Instead of blindly doing what others do we are starting to think out the ethics of our choices, for our self.

Maybe we do consider boycotting a food item, for whatever reason; we’re perhaps deciding to do without it, or finding a alternative. It’s a very personal matter. It’s a private decision we have to deal with for our self, since we can’t discuss it with anyone else unless they also consider boycotting on ethical grounds.

If we try to discuss this matter with someone who hasn’t yet begun to question the ethics of their food, then we open up a potential battlefront, which will show up the difference in each person’s values. For instance, those of us who boycott all animal products on ethical grounds, if we compare our way of thinking with someone’s unquestioning approach, we open up an ego confrontation. It’s as if we are suggesting ‘me better than you’, or ‘me more compassionate than you’.

If we start to think that we are a more advanced person, by virtue of our being more empathetic, it looks as if others are seen by us as primitive and insensitive. This is not how most omnivores see themselves. They know they are empathetic, as evidenced by their kind disposition towards their children or by the way they treat their dogs and cats at home. So, immediately there’s a difference in perception.

They see us as delusional and hypersensitive to the feelings of mere farm animals. Their perception of ‘mere animals’ sums up the problem here, based on the belief that one needn’t question matters which are almost irrelevant.