If you haven't
twigged yet, I follow a compassionate vegan lifestyle. I go into horrible
places and situations, see horrible things and reach out my hand to care. As a
family, we then support all the folk we get out of a corrupt and abusive
system. In everything I do I try to ask for kindness, by being kind myself. I
do not expect everyone to be kind and to stop eating other folk, there will
always be those that want to consume bodies, however weird and distasteful that
seems. But the hatred and spite directed at us seems to indicate clearly that
eating bodies affects the mind and judgement in a lot of humans very badly. It
has often been noted that eating certain foods clouds the mind, in as much the
same way as alcohol. From personal experience as a misguided vegetarian for
many years, I thought of myself as compassionate and aware, until it was I gave
up dairy. Then the shackles were released and I could feel even more deeply,
empathise with more clarity, became more compassionate, became logical without
dissociation. I firmly believe from my experiences and from talking extensively
to others, that consuming non human animals and their milk and eggs creates a
barrier in the mind. It makes being unkind easier, if you will. If you consider
for a moment the amount of hatred and violence that is directed at us, just
because we opt out of a cruel system, then the extent that the general
population have been brainwashed is staggering. To harm others just because
they are being kind is not evolved or humane but is decidedly human.
Becoming plant
based is a lovely start to a compassionate lifestyle. Veganism is another
imperative step, a lifestyle that chooses not to wear, eat or use animals.
However, if we stop at this point then exploitation will never end. The
personal journey needs progression, for our actions and choices are not limited
to personal consequences when they have such a huge , detrimental effect on
others within this world.
As the demands of
this worldwide movement increase and the products we need likewise, without
activism from all, then the exploiters will change their products but not their
mindsets. If a farmer can sell his coconuts for oil/milk/cream/ cosmetics to a
growing market, he will be happy. If he/she knows that the growing market stop
thinking and caring about how that product is collected, it will become
inevitable that animals will continue to be used in a slave-like existence to
enhance profit margins, or once ethical companies will move backwards in the
goal of higher profits. Not to count the devastation caused from deforestation,
the lists of animals destroyed is unimaginable, orangutans, owls, tigers,
monkeys, birds, insects, reptiles.... That a biscuit considered vegan by some,
(oreo) is responsible for huge swathes of tropical forest destruction.
The only way
forward is to still push for an end to animal exploitation. Just following a
diet, or a lifestyle with no activism, will promote continued exploitation just
with usable products that can carry a vegan label. We need to question at
every opportunity, where has this product been made? How was it farmed? How was
it harvested? We need to let the big commercial enterprises know that a ‘vegan
label’ is not enough, that we will continue to ask for higher standards, for no
exploitation, for fair trade, for a kinder world. That we are not egocentric
and focused on ourselves, that we care and understand that to survive, we must
all walk gently. That our buying power cannot be corrupted or cajoled into
looking the other way in the name of profit. Do we not want a world where we
are all free? Is not the goal to be sustainable, mindful and nurture the world
on whom we depend?
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