The mind, helped along by institutionalised misinformation, wants us to believe that plant-based diets are not safe. But evidence proves otherwise. If we read up on the subject (and there’s not exactly a shortage of literature on vegan nutrition) we’ll soon be assured about safety. Much has been written not only about the plant-based diet (supplemented only by regular minute doses of Vitamin B12) but the health and energy of that diet.
Once the physical and psychological safety factors have been satisfactorily dealt with, there is no other reason to be using meat, milk or eggs … or going to zoos! In fact the absence of animal stuff is a great weight lifted from us. You can see it in the many happy and healthy vegans living in the world today, who are themselves evolving and, by their benignity, helping other species to evolve. As each irreplaceable individual animal has a chance to move past the terror and suffering we’ve imposed on them, they will have the opportunity (as humans have had for so long) to come to know who they are.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
animal material
It seems that today our human passion and outrage is reserved for environmental issues not for issues concerning animal farming or animal experimentation. Sad enough that the beautiful planet is being damaged, and sad too that rapid species loss is taking place, but more insidious is our deliberate attack on animals. Here we see a mindless perverting of Nature with no end in sight. And for what? No animal product is essential, for any reason whatsoever. Sure, leather is strong and waterproof but life’s not threatened without it. Sure, cheese and eggs seem useful for making yummy products but they’re not difficult to replace. Nothing from animals is so essential that we’d have to compromise our principles to get useful things, and yet creature-killing has become routine in every human community on the planet. Humanity is hooked on animal stuff. We can’t see past these animal products, to where they could be replaced with plant-based equivalents. As with the kicking of any bad habit, it’s all in the mind. The big surprise is how easy it all is to kick.
ethics and exploitation
Big decisions are made based on ethics and even though we experiment with them, the ones we choose must represent safety - the safe way to do new things. For instance building relationships, building houses, building the very future itself - ethics help us to emphasise what is important. Ethics expand consciousness. And if we use our brains enough (and if our ethics are comprehensive enough) we’ll let a new consciousness influence our everyday thinking process. Humans are fortunate to have that ability to weigh rights and wrongs of quite complex problems. Other animals are limited in this way. They can’t necessarily ‘get out of the rain’ as we can. But we have taken this gift for granted, and used our discriminatory abilities to advantage ourselves, to the detriment of others.
Our sophisticated thought processes have allowed us to feather our own nests, but we’ve neglected our role as guardians. Our intellect has become detached from our conscience, giving us the green light to go ahead with things we shouldn’t be doing. We’ve wreaked plenty of havoc, and we now need to make amends. We need to put ourselves second for a change, materially and spiritually. We owe it to our victims, to show gratitude for what we’ve taken. It’s pay back time. We need to contribute something wholesome to the future. In other words we have to realise that our planet is our sacred responsibility and not something to trash.
However, we are up against the super-spoilers, mega-polluters and profit makers, and amongst them are the animal cagers and vivisectors who simply regard ethics as obstacles to profit. They intend to continue until they are stopped! But recently there’s been a change in public awareness about the damage we humans have done and now, to some extent, there is a level of environmental responsibility creeping into our consciousness. The environment gets good press after decades of neglect. But farm animal abuse gets virtually no publicity at all, because it threatens the huge food and clothing supply chains. The movement for animal rights brings this exploitation into sharper focus.
Our sophisticated thought processes have allowed us to feather our own nests, but we’ve neglected our role as guardians. Our intellect has become detached from our conscience, giving us the green light to go ahead with things we shouldn’t be doing. We’ve wreaked plenty of havoc, and we now need to make amends. We need to put ourselves second for a change, materially and spiritually. We owe it to our victims, to show gratitude for what we’ve taken. It’s pay back time. We need to contribute something wholesome to the future. In other words we have to realise that our planet is our sacred responsibility and not something to trash.
However, we are up against the super-spoilers, mega-polluters and profit makers, and amongst them are the animal cagers and vivisectors who simply regard ethics as obstacles to profit. They intend to continue until they are stopped! But recently there’s been a change in public awareness about the damage we humans have done and now, to some extent, there is a level of environmental responsibility creeping into our consciousness. The environment gets good press after decades of neglect. But farm animal abuse gets virtually no publicity at all, because it threatens the huge food and clothing supply chains. The movement for animal rights brings this exploitation into sharper focus.
values
We often hear “It’s just human nature”, implying that it would be futile to try to change certain behaviours, implying that anyone going against the norm (who is in the minority) will inevitably find themselves between a rock and a hard place. But it works both ways. Those who stay with convention are faced with a worse choice, between agreeing with enslaving animals for meat and a guilty conscience for going along with it. This is where confusion hits hardest, for young people especially. They pick up habits by observing their elders but have to wonder why so called ‘ethical’ behaviour is inconsistent at certain times – some values are great, others appear to be so obviously unethical. Kids can’t help disrespecting some of the things adults do. They question what are good values.
As adults we prize values. They are the yardstick by which we assess and are assessed. These values are connected with how we want others to see us. It’s likely we do things ethically because we want to feel good about ourselves and we also want to win approval. For instance, by developing a good sense of humour and by being kind and generous we show how rounded we are, and how well we’ve adopted a system of values. We’re judged favourably for them and if we display them consistently we get a reputation. Adults need to be seen as strong but fair – we want to develop our soft and our hard sides, so we try to be angels-cum-warriors. To achieve this image we have to learn not just the nuts and bolts of acquiring image, but how to genuinely benefit others over a prolonged period. We need rules that are feel-good rules, that we revere as if passed down through the generations. We rely on proven guidelines that have worked well throughout history and which today still feel right, as if they have sprung straight from instinct. But today, with so many confusions and double standards, we have to be more clear about what our ethics are going to be. In this modern age instincts aren’t always enough to formulate our ethics and so we need to talk things through with others. We need to discuss them in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of conversation. What we don’t need is for certain topics to be forbidden for discussion. What we don’t need is an unexpected explosion because we’ve raised a tricky subject. Agreeing and disagreeing are all part of the process of assessing values. We don’t so much need to agree with others’ values as we need to find others willing to talk to us about values.
As adults we prize values. They are the yardstick by which we assess and are assessed. These values are connected with how we want others to see us. It’s likely we do things ethically because we want to feel good about ourselves and we also want to win approval. For instance, by developing a good sense of humour and by being kind and generous we show how rounded we are, and how well we’ve adopted a system of values. We’re judged favourably for them and if we display them consistently we get a reputation. Adults need to be seen as strong but fair – we want to develop our soft and our hard sides, so we try to be angels-cum-warriors. To achieve this image we have to learn not just the nuts and bolts of acquiring image, but how to genuinely benefit others over a prolonged period. We need rules that are feel-good rules, that we revere as if passed down through the generations. We rely on proven guidelines that have worked well throughout history and which today still feel right, as if they have sprung straight from instinct. But today, with so many confusions and double standards, we have to be more clear about what our ethics are going to be. In this modern age instincts aren’t always enough to formulate our ethics and so we need to talk things through with others. We need to discuss them in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of conversation. What we don’t need is for certain topics to be forbidden for discussion. What we don’t need is an unexpected explosion because we’ve raised a tricky subject. Agreeing and disagreeing are all part of the process of assessing values. We don’t so much need to agree with others’ values as we need to find others willing to talk to us about values.
Friday, August 1, 2008
the art of indifference
Being part of The Vast Majority allows people to get away with things, like downgrading the importance of subjects, even when they are obviously important ones. We dismiss certain issues as if we were brushing a fly off our sleeve. But behind every rebuff meat-eaters make, they are observing the golden rule, of never letting ‘the subject’ get a foothold. These issues about how we treat animals must never become the subject of polite dinner table conversation.
To stop the vegan from shouting their mouth off, they must be sprayed with a little social ostracism, just as we would spray an annoying fly. It can be done by belittling, ignoring or avoiding. Each indifferent or hostile response is saying that it is immoral to waste time listening or participating in this kind of talk. Meat consumers (who represent at least 95% of all people on the planet) reckon they have a mandate to refuse to be bothered or intimidated by all this ugly information about animals, and they have the right to their view that “it is essential to eat meat”. It’s something most of us learn when we’re young and it gains strength from universal practice – “as long as most people do it, I can do it”. The norm overrules ethics.
To stop the vegan from shouting their mouth off, they must be sprayed with a little social ostracism, just as we would spray an annoying fly. It can be done by belittling, ignoring or avoiding. Each indifferent or hostile response is saying that it is immoral to waste time listening or participating in this kind of talk. Meat consumers (who represent at least 95% of all people on the planet) reckon they have a mandate to refuse to be bothered or intimidated by all this ugly information about animals, and they have the right to their view that “it is essential to eat meat”. It’s something most of us learn when we’re young and it gains strength from universal practice – “as long as most people do it, I can do it”. The norm overrules ethics.
the art of euphemism & avoidance
Animal eaters must plead ignorance. They don’t know because they don’t see what happens, and if this convenient ignorance is widespread there isn’t going to be any expectation to. They say that if farms and slaughter houses had glass walls no one would eat meat. More importantly, if we did know what was going on and yet still chose to buy unethical items, it would mean that we are capable of being deliberately cold. Most people don’t want to see themselves that way.
Today it is difficult not to know. Also to know that whatever we buy has to be replaced from a product pool (and in the case of animal products that means a slave-pool). If we buy from it we also help to promote the acceptable face of it.
For public relations purposes, the animal death camps are called "farms" and "processing plants". These places have to seem to be “efficient and humane facilities which are servicing the public with the best in food provision”, which coincides with the image the customer wants. Meat-eaters prefer to hold an unbelievable picture in their head rather than think about images of animals being tortured and executed. The consumer must at all costs continue enjoying eating their favourite foods. But this comes at a price. One has to let go of the actual truth of things, so that we can continue enjoying wearing fashionable shoes or visiting zoos. By performing some nifty mental gymnastics we can navigate past the realities.
Double think is especially useful in tricky conversations where we find ourselves defending an ‘impossible’ argument. With the aid of double-think, unconvincing though it may be, we can run a standard line of argument that uses euphemism and eliminates the need to talk about certain things. We say: “It’s pointless to discuss this”. Meaning we don’t want to go there (or go anywhere near the subject of animal farming). We observe our right to avoid both the issue and those people who want to talk about it.
Today it is difficult not to know. Also to know that whatever we buy has to be replaced from a product pool (and in the case of animal products that means a slave-pool). If we buy from it we also help to promote the acceptable face of it.
For public relations purposes, the animal death camps are called "farms" and "processing plants". These places have to seem to be “efficient and humane facilities which are servicing the public with the best in food provision”, which coincides with the image the customer wants. Meat-eaters prefer to hold an unbelievable picture in their head rather than think about images of animals being tortured and executed. The consumer must at all costs continue enjoying eating their favourite foods. But this comes at a price. One has to let go of the actual truth of things, so that we can continue enjoying wearing fashionable shoes or visiting zoos. By performing some nifty mental gymnastics we can navigate past the realities.
Double think is especially useful in tricky conversations where we find ourselves defending an ‘impossible’ argument. With the aid of double-think, unconvincing though it may be, we can run a standard line of argument that uses euphemism and eliminates the need to talk about certain things. We say: “It’s pointless to discuss this”. Meaning we don’t want to go there (or go anywhere near the subject of animal farming). We observe our right to avoid both the issue and those people who want to talk about it.
me and my shadow
Ethics are our instinctive ‘knowing’. They let us decide which direction to take, and they also warn us of dangers. Instincts, linked to our senses, let us detect ugly, noisy or foul smelling things, telling us when they are to be avoided. This is why animal farms these days are closed to the public (as are vivisection laboratories). They are not attractive to look at, nor peaceful, nor sweet smelling. They have all the charm of concentration camps. These are places people avoid. Today’s farms are so obviously hotbeds of unethical animal treatment that only those people who work on them (or the very few animal activists or environmentalists who’ve made it their business to see what goes on there) would visit them out of interest. The general public is uninterested in ‘that sort of farm’. Enthusiastic consumers of meat and milk products have a picture in their heads of a happy farmyard (circa 1930). They prefer to know very little about modern husbandry methods, the industrial processes being applied to rearing and killing animals. It would spoil their journey towards becoming a better person. And spoil their dinner too!
Not knowing, not making it our business to know, not wanting to know: all these states of mind are dangerous and when it comes to animal farming, the powers that be are obviously trying to conceal something ugly, namely that their farms are really animal prisons solely geared up for death. By knowing even a little about all this horror, puts animal-eaters in a terrible ethical bind. Although not socially embarrassing (because everybody else is, more or less, locked into it too) it is troubling to us on a personal esteem level. We like to think of ourselves as ethical people. But as soon as animal rights is brought up, we wonder if we can redeem ourselves. We know that animals are in death camps and that our dollars, spent on animal products, keep them there.
Not knowing, not making it our business to know, not wanting to know: all these states of mind are dangerous and when it comes to animal farming, the powers that be are obviously trying to conceal something ugly, namely that their farms are really animal prisons solely geared up for death. By knowing even a little about all this horror, puts animal-eaters in a terrible ethical bind. Although not socially embarrassing (because everybody else is, more or less, locked into it too) it is troubling to us on a personal esteem level. We like to think of ourselves as ethical people. But as soon as animal rights is brought up, we wonder if we can redeem ourselves. We know that animals are in death camps and that our dollars, spent on animal products, keep them there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)