On ‘moderation’

“I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject [of slavery], I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.”

~ William Lloyd Garrison

In wanting her life, no sentient being is ever ’moderate’. If non-humans could speak words intelligible to us, theirs would not be a language of moderation.

The next time someone accuses you of being “radical” or a “fundamentalist”, ask them why they’re making it sound like a bad thing.

No, it’s not ‘natural’

No, it’s not natural to “domesticate” somebody – bring them into existence on your terms – so that you can kill them.

It’s not natural to control their reproduction, mess with their genes, mutilate their bodies, deprive them of comfort, take away their children, and make them suffer so that you can use them as means to your ends.

It’s not natural at all.

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No, it’s not natural to keep bovine women pregnant constantly so that you can steal their milk.

It’s not natural to force them to give birth every year, only to impose on vulnerable mothers the tragedy of having their children taken away, so that you can drink their milk.

Nature intended that milk for her babies.

~

No, it’s not natural to put violence into your body, and then expect your body not to respond violently.

Should sentient creatures be tortured in laboratories to find “cures” for the diseases we give ourselves by eating the products of abused animals? Or should we solve the problem at its root by eating non-violent food? That’s a choice we make.

“Nature” has nothing to do with it.

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No, it’s not natural to wear or use the skin, fur, feathers, or hairs of other sentient beings.

Those things belong to them. That which we call “theft” by any other name is still theft.

It’s not natural at all.

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No, it’s not natural to confine and torment somebody so that they can entertain you.

It’s not natural to remove them from their home, deprive them of freedom and comfort, beat or whip them, withhold food or other necessities, and generally enslave them for a few cheap laughs at the circus.

Nature knows nothing of laughing at someone else’s expense.

~

No, it’s not natural to kill.

The inevitability of death doesn’t excuse the injustice of prematurely robbing somebody of their life. When the captive bolt gun didn’t knock her out the first time, she stood there and endured every subsequent shot, refusing to die – clinging desperately to this life that, for all its misery and pain, is the most precious thing she’ll ever know.

Nature had no part in your decisions to impose suffering and death on somebody who would’ve given anything to avoid it.

~

No, it’s not natural to exploit the vulnerable.

Human beings have evolved to be compassionate, and to be able to love and care for the vulnerable ‘other’.

Ignoring the greatest accomplishment of our evolution isn’t natural.

~

 

Human beings have an extraordinary talent for telling ourselves all sorts of lies, and then actually believing them. Some lies have been told (and believed) so often, by so many people, that it becomes difficult to see them for the folly they truly are.

Fortunately, that pesky thing called ‘truth’ has a funny way of refusing to be silenced. It can be temporarily ignored, buried in the sand for a while, but sooner or later, it always resurfaces.

All animal exploitation – for food or for some other purpose, intensive or small-scale – involves unspeakable violence. All of it involves tragedy that is beyond the power of words to fully describe. All of it is unnecessary. Sticking nonsensical labels onto it (“natural”, “humane”, etc) may make us feel good, but that’s all it does. It has nothing to do with the justice that we owe to sentient non-humans who, like us, value their lives and want to live.

What’s ‘nature’ got to do with it?

The most common excuse thrown around in favour of animal use is that it’s ‘natural’. The appeal to nature here can refer to one of several things.

Some people use the term to mean that, because humans have been eating and wearing non-humans for a long time, it makes sense to keep doing it. Here, the word ‘natural’ is often used interchangeably with ‘traditional’. Animal-based food and clothing has sustained humans for thousands of years, so who are we to criticize it?

This argument fails to take into consideration a number of things. To begin with, we simply don’t need to use non-humans anymore. With the exception of a relatively small minority of humans living in extreme climates, most human beings have access to plant foods – grains, lentils, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, etc. These foods have been accessible to most of our species since the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago, and they are often cheaper and/or easier to grow than animal-based foods.

Secondly, since when is tradition an excuse for committing horrible acts of violence? We’ve been doing lots of horrible things for a long time, and many of our cultural, religious, social, political and other traditions have been used to facilitate the injustices we insist on acting out. We’ve been sexist for a long time. Human slavery has been with us for thousands of years. Should we keep doing those things, too, in the name of tradition?

For all its sentimental appeal, tradition simply cannot serve as a guide for ethics. We need to allow ourselves the sobriety to evaluate our own actions and change course where necessary. Such emotional honesty may not appeal to our personal or collective insecurities, but it is an indispensible part of living responsibly – the kind of living that recognizes our personal responsibility towards others. This is particularly true when our actions affect others in very real ways. As the German theologian and vegetarian Albert Schweitzer aptly put it:

“Think occasionally of the [violence] of which you spare yourself the sight.”

Another variation of the appeal to nature points out that free-roaming (“wild”) non-humans eat one another, so why can’t we? Again, there are several problems with this.

Firstly, why should the conduct of non-humans serve as a guide for our actions? Dogs poop and have sex on the street. Many species reproduce via what we would consider to be rape (males force themselves onto unwilling females). Should we copy these behaviours? If not, why is food any different?

Secondly, looking to ‘nature’ as a guide for we should or shouldn’t do is (at best) vague and open to interpretation. If we’re going to use nature as our guide, why fetishize meat-eating animals, such as lions? Why not seek to emulate the countless species of herbivores - at least some (if not many) of whom, coincidentally, are better-fed and more physically fit than their carnivorous counter-parts?

The problem with using ‘nature’ as a guide for our actions is that anyone can examine the vast and chaotic thing that we call ‘nature’ and draw whatever conclusions they want in order to justify their pre-conceived bigotry. Racists often claim that their views are based on a “natural” hierarchy of races. Homophobia is often excused on the grounds that gays and lesbians can’t “naturally” reproduce. These forms of prejudice are silly and arbitrary. But then again, so is speciesism.

Whatever may or may not occur in the wild, human beings have choices to make. We can empathize with others and look at how our actions affect those around us. We can choose to not rob sentient beings of the lives that are so incredibly precious to them.

Veganism is not a superhuman feat, nor does it require some sort of Herculean discipline. Going vegan is surprisingly easy, and it is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life. And even if being vegan was as daunting as some people imagine it to be, it would still be absolutely nothing compared to what animals have to face because of people not being vegan.

There are many complicated ethical dilemmas in life. Not exploiting the vulnerable shouldn’t be one of them.

Welcome to the vegan pensieve!

Welcome!

For those who may not know, a ‘pensieve’ is a fictional object – appearing in the ‘Harry Potter’ series – used to collect and store thoughts and memories. Witches and wizards use pensieves to set aside certain brain waves, in order to be able to retrieve them later and examine them objectively.

The purpose of this blog is to present a collection of thoughts, quotes, essays, and other musings that dare to demand a just and non-violent world. Such a world is not an unattainable fantasy;  on the contrary, it can be an inevitability, if only each and every single one of us is willing to accept nothing less.

Indeed, when we cast off the delusions of hierarchy and violence that society has taught us to accept as ‘natural’ and normal, we find that it already exists – in our hearts. It is our essential nature.

Welcome home.