Hello Tobin. Thank you very much for the response.
You've been a vegan for 5 months. From my perspective, that's kicking the tires and going for a test drive. I thank you for making the effort to explore this lifestyle.
I accept and respect other people's choices because in the unfolding of my life, I've made the same choices. Tho for nearly a half a century, I've enjoyed a diet that's opposite of the masses of people who are into SAD (the Standard American Diet), still, I know that I'm equal to one and all, and I feel that we are spiritually the same. Plus, I understand that I can only control what I do, and what I eat ... and I have no interest in controlling what other people do, eat, say, think, feel, imagine or believe. Hence, my path is simply to set an example ... and I, personally, allow everyone to evolve in their own time and space.
Since you truly believe that eating meat is on par with racism, rape, enslavement and murder ... then I assume that you see your loved ones -- perhaps your mother, father, sisters, brothers, partners, girlfriends, boyfriends who have always consumed meat -- as serial killers who are directly responsible for thousands of murders. That point of view must be a frightening place to be ... knowing that you've been surrounded by mass murders for your entire life. But then again, if you ate meat for 99% of your lifetime, and have only recently taken a few months off from your killing spree, then you probably consider yourself to be one too.
And so as a vegan, what are your thoughts about killing thousands and thousands of living plants to eat? We vegans do it by cutting them away from their homes in the soil, chopping them to pieces, shredding them in machines, then we burn, boil, steam or bake them. We also eat many plants when they are still alive. This is the most horrible death of all, as you can imagine being crushed and torn apart by sharp teeth, slowly dissolved by stomach acids, then put through a small intestine only to have peristaltic action squeeze the nutritive juices out of your pulverized body. And of course we vegans take the living offspring of plants -- millions and millions of grains -- and we grind them into flour, then toss them into ovens.
All the things mentioned above are worthy of our ongoing contemplation, as vegans.
I'm not confident that I could get folks to change, if I referred to them as rapists, slave owners and life-long serial murderers. In fact, I think that will make many them go out and eat tons more meat, and enjoy the heck out of it, too!
However, I'm very confident that I would have much better chances to catalyze positive changes in friends and family, if I become an example of exquisite health, never got sick, always had abundant energy, had an authentic positive attitude, could handle the stresses of daily life with intuitive ease, was street smart, relaxed, poised, laughed frequently, had a light-heart ... and loved them unconditionally. When I meet people like that ... I'm very open to having their energies, philosophies and lifestyles rub off onto me.
Yes, I agree with a lot of things in your reply. I was an overnight vegan, before living in what I would consider a slumber. I was unaware of my impact, for various reasons, but once I was supplied with the information I felt I had an ethical obligation to change my behavior. This has opened my eyes to a lot of other areas in my life (some even D.T. has made me aware of) that are causing harm and every day I am working to reduce that harm. I'm not naive enough to believe that I can completely reduce my negative impact, but in the areas where I have a choice - I will. Turning a blind eye is not an option for me. THIS is what frustrates me the most about others. The excuses, the lies, the deep denial so that we don't have to sacrifice our comfort. Yes there are people who MAY not be able to change their diets for health reasons, but the majority are just unwilling. When has this ever been an acceptable excuse for doing something ethically wrong?
This change in my life, has on some levels changed my relationship with others and it's caused a lot of anger and stress. Do I regret my decision? Most certainly not. I feel good about my choices, great even. Most of the time, watching others continue to eat animal products doesn't bother me. Their attitude and denial about their habits, does.
I don't consider anyone that eats meat a bad person. I see them like I was before, unaware and uneducated. That is NOT an excuse, once enlightened, to continue with the same harmful patterns of behavior. Anything beyond that is willful ignorance.
As far as your argument about plants, sure, I can't sit here and ignore further investigation when I'm pushing others to see my point of view. I find the plant argument a little shaky. Plants don't have nervous systems and they don't scream out in pain when butchered. In fact, most of my meals now look 10 times more delicious than before when sided with a chunk of chicken flesh. You also mentioned your health has improved dramatically since starting a plant based diet; same here. This, TO ME, is the lesser of two evils. If we one day found a way of sustaining ourselves without harming any living beings, I would be on board in a heart beat.
I'm not advocating going around condemning people for their actions. I'm fully aware this doesn't work to promote change. This thread is living proof of that. I am still learning. I also don't hate murderers, rapists, or child molesters. I dislike the things they do, but there are a million reasons why someone might commit these acts. It's not for me to judge, but I will also not stand by and do nothing. Had this been the attitude while whites had slaves, we would probably still be committing these horrible atrocities.
Thanks for your reply. Writing in response helps me to think through things a little more clearly.
I hope I'm staying level enough and not offending anyone. If I am, feel free to let me know.
