"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian"
This isn't a plea for you to become vegetarian.
This isn't about me making you feel bad about eating meat.
This is about me and my feelings and the fact that I just don't know what to do anymore.
I just watched Earthlings, which is like a 72 minute snuff movie about cruelty to animals. It was shocking. I'd seen a lot of the stuff before, but this just was unwatchable. Not only that, but it made it very difficult to sit there and think that I was doing nothing about the situation. Yet, I just can't work out how to stop it. There's this horrible horrible prejudice that makes people unable to see the cruelty - Benatar today called it "moral blindness" and it's incredibly true. I completely understand it. I was suffering from it myself just a few months ago. But now that I'm completely persuaded by the arguments I expect that they should also come naturally to everyone else! They just make absolute sense - once you've broken down the prejudices, of course. So I end up saying some crazy things and people just immediately ignore everything else that comes of my mind. Eh. I want to make a difference! I want people to stop eating meat!
But I also don't want to be the downer at the dinner party who brings up the topic again and again. Then again, I feel that I'm being hypocritical and denying my own morality if I don't. I think it's different from religious evangelism, however. I'm not trying to save their souls by making them to conform to my beliefs. I'm trying to reduce the pain and suffering of others by suggesting that they relinquish some of their gustinary pleasures.
What do I do? What do you (vegetarians/vegans) do?
I also want to become a vegan, but I'm not convinced that I could live easily and healthily on a vegan diet. I think I'll do the vegetarian thing for a few more years and then make the transition....
This isn't about me making you feel bad about eating meat.
This is about me and my feelings and the fact that I just don't know what to do anymore.
I just watched Earthlings, which is like a 72 minute snuff movie about cruelty to animals. It was shocking. I'd seen a lot of the stuff before, but this just was unwatchable. Not only that, but it made it very difficult to sit there and think that I was doing nothing about the situation. Yet, I just can't work out how to stop it. There's this horrible horrible prejudice that makes people unable to see the cruelty - Benatar today called it "moral blindness" and it's incredibly true. I completely understand it. I was suffering from it myself just a few months ago. But now that I'm completely persuaded by the arguments I expect that they should also come naturally to everyone else! They just make absolute sense - once you've broken down the prejudices, of course. So I end up saying some crazy things and people just immediately ignore everything else that comes of my mind. Eh. I want to make a difference! I want people to stop eating meat!
But I also don't want to be the downer at the dinner party who brings up the topic again and again. Then again, I feel that I'm being hypocritical and denying my own morality if I don't. I think it's different from religious evangelism, however. I'm not trying to save their souls by making them to conform to my beliefs. I'm trying to reduce the pain and suffering of others by suggesting that they relinquish some of their gustinary pleasures.
What do I do? What do you (vegetarians/vegans) do?
I also want to become a vegan, but I'm not convinced that I could live easily and healthily on a vegan diet. I think I'll do the vegetarian thing for a few more years and then make the transition....