373:
There’s a great gulf between people’s attitudes to animals. The difference lies between the cute, cuddly ones and the ‘edible’ ones. Until a few decades ago no one thought much about it - farm animals were just different types of animal which we needed to eat to stay alive. Then the myth was exploded - animal protein was NOT essential to good nutrition ... and then the rest of the story came tumbling out, about how animals were being treated on farms and what horrors were happening in abattoirs.
In the 1940s and 50s the idea of a vegan diet was being tested and found to be not only adequate but healthy - plant-based nutrition was coming of age. By the early eighties The Animals Film and the book Animal Liberation were released and together they had a shocking effect. They shocked me, certainly. I realised for the first time how much our food relied on animals and what actually happened to the animals reared for food. Some of us were galvanised at the time. The information seeped into public consciousness and suddenly everyone seemed to be talking about it ... and then, surprisingly, it all came to a standstill. At least it did in Australia. Why?
That has been at the centre of some discussion in Animal Rights publications … but nowhere much else. In the general community there’s been a reluctance to face up to animal issues - probably because people who eat animals feel too uncomfortable to think about it too deeply. In private, if there’s any talk of it at all, it centres on health issues rather than the ethics of imprisoning and killing animals. People like their animal foods too much to discuss the rights and wrongs with any sort of intellectual rigour. In any supermarket there are probably thousands of choices of animal-based edibles. In any one day the meals and snacks we eat probably all contain some animal ingredient, because it adds richness, flavour and bulk to foods. The food industry have worked hard to make us crave the animal content. And since we now want it so badly we’re reluctant to discuss the subject seriously.
Those who are against the ‘eating of animals’ are usually the butt of jokes. Those who are likely to want to talk about animal issues are usually avoided or discouraged from even bringing up the subject in conversation. The subject is generally tabooed.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Starting to pay back
371:
Once, when we were younger, when the world was less damaged, abundance seemed to be everlasting. Oceans were clean and teemed with fish. It was incomprehensible that whole river systems could ever die. Land was fertile. Our surroundings were attractive. It was unimaginable that the world could be turned into a slum. But over a relatively short period of time, with each person saving their own skin, we’ve nothing left to pass on. The damage is done and we haven’t been able to stop ourselves from continually taking, and taking more and taking faster.
Instead of learning from our mistakes the human race has refined cruelty, increased slavery, wrecked forests, polluted the air and land, and generally become addicted to an increasingly unsustainable lifestyle. Now we’re in all sorts of trouble.
From a state of plenty we’ve built up a debt burden. Our collective debts won’t easily be paid back. But we must try to make a start. It isn’t impossible, surely?
Debt mentality gave us the false impression of being richer than we were and, like any bubble, it had to burst. That realisation dawned on us slowly at first, then we caught up with reality and then it gathered speed as we took more and more for granted. Now, with less clean air, less fresh water, less bird song in the morning, we’re learning the big lesson about debt – that it is benign at first but becomes inevitably toxic. It’s a bit like animal food itself or anything else we’re not entitled to - it kills the best in us.
Blog ends here until after Christmas
Once, when we were younger, when the world was less damaged, abundance seemed to be everlasting. Oceans were clean and teemed with fish. It was incomprehensible that whole river systems could ever die. Land was fertile. Our surroundings were attractive. It was unimaginable that the world could be turned into a slum. But over a relatively short period of time, with each person saving their own skin, we’ve nothing left to pass on. The damage is done and we haven’t been able to stop ourselves from continually taking, and taking more and taking faster.
Instead of learning from our mistakes the human race has refined cruelty, increased slavery, wrecked forests, polluted the air and land, and generally become addicted to an increasingly unsustainable lifestyle. Now we’re in all sorts of trouble.
From a state of plenty we’ve built up a debt burden. Our collective debts won’t easily be paid back. But we must try to make a start. It isn’t impossible, surely?
Debt mentality gave us the false impression of being richer than we were and, like any bubble, it had to burst. That realisation dawned on us slowly at first, then we caught up with reality and then it gathered speed as we took more and more for granted. Now, with less clean air, less fresh water, less bird song in the morning, we’re learning the big lesson about debt – that it is benign at first but becomes inevitably toxic. It’s a bit like animal food itself or anything else we’re not entitled to - it kills the best in us.
Blog ends here until after Christmas
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Inherited debt
370:
Debts affect the generation which follows. Young people wake up to the mess left them by their elders. They have no trouble putting two and two together to see what has happened and why. They’re familiar with self interest, they understand how forests are being destroyed, they see how animals are being factory-farmed. They realise why poor nations are being made to starve. And they know we older ones are to blame for perpetuating all this destruction and cruelty and waste.
I imagine the young get quite angry when they think about what they’ve inherited. But to be completely constructive about the mess we older ones have left them, we need to look at human nature ... to see what it is and how it really hasn’t changed much over the centuries.
Unless we want the next generation to do exactly what we’ve done we must stop adding to the collective debt. Unless we want today’s kids to spoil their own health, ethics and environment as we are doing, we can’t afford to sit around passively, twiddling out thumbs. If we do, they will continue stealing as we did, until there is nothing left to take. The first and most constructive step we can take is to become vegan and encourage them to follow suit - it will have a dramatic effect on their health and the legacy of non-violence they leave to their own progeny.
Debts affect the generation which follows. Young people wake up to the mess left them by their elders. They have no trouble putting two and two together to see what has happened and why. They’re familiar with self interest, they understand how forests are being destroyed, they see how animals are being factory-farmed. They realise why poor nations are being made to starve. And they know we older ones are to blame for perpetuating all this destruction and cruelty and waste.
I imagine the young get quite angry when they think about what they’ve inherited. But to be completely constructive about the mess we older ones have left them, we need to look at human nature ... to see what it is and how it really hasn’t changed much over the centuries.
Unless we want the next generation to do exactly what we’ve done we must stop adding to the collective debt. Unless we want today’s kids to spoil their own health, ethics and environment as we are doing, we can’t afford to sit around passively, twiddling out thumbs. If we do, they will continue stealing as we did, until there is nothing left to take. The first and most constructive step we can take is to become vegan and encourage them to follow suit - it will have a dramatic effect on their health and the legacy of non-violence they leave to their own progeny.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Advantage-taking
369:
The example set by young people who ‘go vegan’, is noticed by those near them, whether it’s at work or at home. The general effect is that the omnivore can be embarrassed by the self discipline they (often their juniors) show. Their example is perhaps a most powerful influence on the entrenched omnivore who might make their own first step in considering three things, their habits, their attitudes and their capacity for altruism. The impact (of meeting a vegan) on anyone who is still using animal products is to underline their own contribution to the upholding of Society’s animal-exploiting conventions.
Veganism is just one idea that counters the wrongness of stealing from the powerless. Colonial powers steal from poorer nations to enrich themselves, and humans in general steal from animals for much the same reasons. And isn’t it true that our thefts comes back to haunt us? Once-powerless countries grow up and strengthen themselves, and then commercially begin to outstrip their former masters, becoming a danger to their economies. Similarly, powerless animals used for food now become dangerous to their masters, but indirectly, via their impact on human health. There are harsh consequences to stealing and taking advantage of the weak.
The example set by young people who ‘go vegan’, is noticed by those near them, whether it’s at work or at home. The general effect is that the omnivore can be embarrassed by the self discipline they (often their juniors) show. Their example is perhaps a most powerful influence on the entrenched omnivore who might make their own first step in considering three things, their habits, their attitudes and their capacity for altruism. The impact (of meeting a vegan) on anyone who is still using animal products is to underline their own contribution to the upholding of Society’s animal-exploiting conventions.
Veganism is just one idea that counters the wrongness of stealing from the powerless. Colonial powers steal from poorer nations to enrich themselves, and humans in general steal from animals for much the same reasons. And isn’t it true that our thefts comes back to haunt us? Once-powerless countries grow up and strengthen themselves, and then commercially begin to outstrip their former masters, becoming a danger to their economies. Similarly, powerless animals used for food now become dangerous to their masters, but indirectly, via their impact on human health. There are harsh consequences to stealing and taking advantage of the weak.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Greater good can be self-benefitting too
368:
The criticism of both young and older people, for their indulgent lifestyle, seems partially true but partially misplaced. Older people might argue that the trouble with the world today is young people’s profligacy. They, in turn, argue that the trouble today is with the older people for causing all the major world problems … and so, whoever we are, we pass the buck.
For me as a cyclist I blame the car driver, for me as a wage slave I blame the rich, and so on. But really it’s a whole complex of issues that rise to the surface to make us cranky. We feel impotent because we are part of the collective mind-set. We drive cars and we fly in planes that pollute our world. What can any individual do to stop it apart from not driving or flying? In today’s world how can we NOT take part without disadvantaging ourselves? I know if I tighten my belt and act responsibly I’ll feel resentment that others aren’t doing likewise.
Perhaps the one way each of us can get started (doing the right thing) is by acting constructively whilst avoiding resentment – that is taking a stand without making a rod for our own backs – that is doing something for the greater good which also happens to benefit ourselves.
Which brings us back to the need to save the environment, our health, the animals, the economy and most importantly save our own sense of meaningfulness … by going vegan. By not exploiting animals, by eating plant-based foods and by wearing non-animal clothing and shoes, we do something to make us and our world feel better. It helps pay back the debt we’ve collectively run up. By boycotting very many of the products on the market (which are unethical) we can affect the collective lifestyle habit. And that might appeal to young people who don’t see how, otherwise, they can be constructive with their own lives. They almost certainly do want to build a future. They most certainly do not have to adopt the ruined pleasure dome they’ve inherited from their elders.
By going vegan, young people can show, by this one major gesture, how individual action can start the ball rolling.
The criticism of both young and older people, for their indulgent lifestyle, seems partially true but partially misplaced. Older people might argue that the trouble with the world today is young people’s profligacy. They, in turn, argue that the trouble today is with the older people for causing all the major world problems … and so, whoever we are, we pass the buck.
For me as a cyclist I blame the car driver, for me as a wage slave I blame the rich, and so on. But really it’s a whole complex of issues that rise to the surface to make us cranky. We feel impotent because we are part of the collective mind-set. We drive cars and we fly in planes that pollute our world. What can any individual do to stop it apart from not driving or flying? In today’s world how can we NOT take part without disadvantaging ourselves? I know if I tighten my belt and act responsibly I’ll feel resentment that others aren’t doing likewise.
Perhaps the one way each of us can get started (doing the right thing) is by acting constructively whilst avoiding resentment – that is taking a stand without making a rod for our own backs – that is doing something for the greater good which also happens to benefit ourselves.
Which brings us back to the need to save the environment, our health, the animals, the economy and most importantly save our own sense of meaningfulness … by going vegan. By not exploiting animals, by eating plant-based foods and by wearing non-animal clothing and shoes, we do something to make us and our world feel better. It helps pay back the debt we’ve collectively run up. By boycotting very many of the products on the market (which are unethical) we can affect the collective lifestyle habit. And that might appeal to young people who don’t see how, otherwise, they can be constructive with their own lives. They almost certainly do want to build a future. They most certainly do not have to adopt the ruined pleasure dome they’ve inherited from their elders.
By going vegan, young people can show, by this one major gesture, how individual action can start the ball rolling.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
You just can’t win!
367:
If vanity is the big trap in life, you’d think after some decades of life we’d learn about it and stop ‘doing’ it. All I’m saying here is that for older people, who could be setting an example for the young, if they want to avoid neuroses concerning their lost youth and missed opportunities, they might need to stop running up their ‘vanity debts’. We should get used to paying-back as we go along, doing without some things, exercising a little self-restraint plus a touch of responsibility-taking. If we don’t go that way then we risk not being able to restore balance later in life ... and then it all ending in tears.
I can remember starting out in adult life eager to experience abundance and enjoy effortless, sensory experiences. But as I got older, and taking all this for granted, I tried to recapture some of the pleasure of past years, only to find that that pleasure required more investment. I was losing my capacity for pursuing it.
As age creeps on and our health goes and then our strength we have to measure what we do - we no longer run just for fun. Our body creaks so much we can’t even run for a bus! If you speak with very old people they’ll say how important it is to ‘keep your health’, because once lost it’s very hard to get it back. For them, so they say, there’s pain every day. Whereas younger people don’t get much body pain and whenever they do it isn’t so ominous - health isn’t an issue because they haven’t lost it yet. But they do know that good health and good looks go together, and energy, sexuality and a slim, athletic body also go together, and this somewhat pulls them into line. But up against this there’s a powerful need to extract from life everything possible.
On an everyday basis we try to excite the taste buds and satisfy food cravings. So here, on these familiar battle grounds, we tear ourselves apart, torn between pleasure and good sense, stuffing our faces with good-tasting but body-destroying foods ... and it becomes such an all-consuming occupation that we forget that the rest of the world is going on around us. Many are starving.
Here in the West we are so privileged and have such opportunities to live life NOW … and that’s great! But in the process we forget about the need to pursue ‘the greater good’. It’s a shame about that because something vital is spoiled in us because of that, and it’s likely one deserves to be criticised for living an indulgent lifestyle.
Huh! You just can’t win. But was it ever just about winning?
If vanity is the big trap in life, you’d think after some decades of life we’d learn about it and stop ‘doing’ it. All I’m saying here is that for older people, who could be setting an example for the young, if they want to avoid neuroses concerning their lost youth and missed opportunities, they might need to stop running up their ‘vanity debts’. We should get used to paying-back as we go along, doing without some things, exercising a little self-restraint plus a touch of responsibility-taking. If we don’t go that way then we risk not being able to restore balance later in life ... and then it all ending in tears.
I can remember starting out in adult life eager to experience abundance and enjoy effortless, sensory experiences. But as I got older, and taking all this for granted, I tried to recapture some of the pleasure of past years, only to find that that pleasure required more investment. I was losing my capacity for pursuing it.
As age creeps on and our health goes and then our strength we have to measure what we do - we no longer run just for fun. Our body creaks so much we can’t even run for a bus! If you speak with very old people they’ll say how important it is to ‘keep your health’, because once lost it’s very hard to get it back. For them, so they say, there’s pain every day. Whereas younger people don’t get much body pain and whenever they do it isn’t so ominous - health isn’t an issue because they haven’t lost it yet. But they do know that good health and good looks go together, and energy, sexuality and a slim, athletic body also go together, and this somewhat pulls them into line. But up against this there’s a powerful need to extract from life everything possible.
On an everyday basis we try to excite the taste buds and satisfy food cravings. So here, on these familiar battle grounds, we tear ourselves apart, torn between pleasure and good sense, stuffing our faces with good-tasting but body-destroying foods ... and it becomes such an all-consuming occupation that we forget that the rest of the world is going on around us. Many are starving.
Here in the West we are so privileged and have such opportunities to live life NOW … and that’s great! But in the process we forget about the need to pursue ‘the greater good’. It’s a shame about that because something vital is spoiled in us because of that, and it’s likely one deserves to be criticised for living an indulgent lifestyle.
Huh! You just can’t win. But was it ever just about winning?
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Animal co-products
366:
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity ( …that’s any fun at all for humanity)”. Ogden Nash.
We live for pleasure and acceptance, young and old. Appearance is important, for young people especially. Fashion is important and particularly for young women their shoes have to look right ... but for vegan women there’s often not much to choose from. It puts them in a very difficult position, as regards fashionable footwear. And so to the general matter of shoes. When I look around, downwards, I don’t see much on people’s feet other than leather, whether it’s hardy walking boots or part of formal footwear. It doesn’t cross people’s minds to think about this co-product of the abattoir. Animals’ hides are often more valuable to the shoe industry than the carcass is to the meat industry.
So it comes to this - we’re more likely to go for attractive or hard-wearing shoes than consider the ethics of leather. We’ll maybe eat non-animal foods for health reasons but not rule out wearing the skins of animals, because a shoe will not adversely affect our health.
Even with health itself we may consider that the eating of junk food is okay because, especially when we’re young, health isn’t an issue … that is until we put on body weight … and even then we only tinker with foods that fatten us, which is close to vanity and far from good health practice.
Whatever commodity we consider essential to our lifestyle, whether we are young or old, we try to squeeze what we can from what’s available. We spend big, risk debt, ignore warnings and mainly consider our own interests. We want to live for the moment. Above all we try NOT to become like those sad people (usually older people) who don’t live life or seem to have any real fun at all.
A young person’s instinct will be to paint their life with brush strokes from a brightly coloured palette. And to make it all look more exciting than it is, it’s best not to think about things too deeply, so as not to undermine self confidence. At a certain age young people, who’ve been controlled throughout their childhoods, are suddenly free to experience every possible stimulating experience. And why not? “We only live once, so live life while you can” …that is until the shutters come down and we are forced to change (usually in later years) ... by which time we’ve lost all the fun of life and become the victims of our own vanity. And in all that time we’ve maybe never considered the animals whose lives have been sacrificed to make our own colourful life possible.
“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity ( …that’s any fun at all for humanity)”. Ogden Nash.
We live for pleasure and acceptance, young and old. Appearance is important, for young people especially. Fashion is important and particularly for young women their shoes have to look right ... but for vegan women there’s often not much to choose from. It puts them in a very difficult position, as regards fashionable footwear. And so to the general matter of shoes. When I look around, downwards, I don’t see much on people’s feet other than leather, whether it’s hardy walking boots or part of formal footwear. It doesn’t cross people’s minds to think about this co-product of the abattoir. Animals’ hides are often more valuable to the shoe industry than the carcass is to the meat industry.
So it comes to this - we’re more likely to go for attractive or hard-wearing shoes than consider the ethics of leather. We’ll maybe eat non-animal foods for health reasons but not rule out wearing the skins of animals, because a shoe will not adversely affect our health.
Even with health itself we may consider that the eating of junk food is okay because, especially when we’re young, health isn’t an issue … that is until we put on body weight … and even then we only tinker with foods that fatten us, which is close to vanity and far from good health practice.
Whatever commodity we consider essential to our lifestyle, whether we are young or old, we try to squeeze what we can from what’s available. We spend big, risk debt, ignore warnings and mainly consider our own interests. We want to live for the moment. Above all we try NOT to become like those sad people (usually older people) who don’t live life or seem to have any real fun at all.
A young person’s instinct will be to paint their life with brush strokes from a brightly coloured palette. And to make it all look more exciting than it is, it’s best not to think about things too deeply, so as not to undermine self confidence. At a certain age young people, who’ve been controlled throughout their childhoods, are suddenly free to experience every possible stimulating experience. And why not? “We only live once, so live life while you can” …that is until the shutters come down and we are forced to change (usually in later years) ... by which time we’ve lost all the fun of life and become the victims of our own vanity. And in all that time we’ve maybe never considered the animals whose lives have been sacrificed to make our own colourful life possible.
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