It’s crazy to me how people convince themselves to do things that they inherently know are wrong. People will tell themselves whatever they have to in order to make something seem okay, if that thing is convenient for them. There are a huge number of people who will never in their lives admit that there is anything wrong with the way animals are treated in our society. They convince themselves that it is perfectly acceptable to raise animals in horrifyingly inhuman conditions, kill them for food, torment them in laboratories, and abuse them for entertainment. They do this by refusing to think about it, by pretending they don’t have a choice, by overlooking all the gory details, or by just plain lying to themselves.
I have heard so many of these lies and excuses from people I know over the years. People say they think it’s great that I don’t eat meat, but they just couldn’t do that, lie. Anyone can do it; it just takes a little bit of dedication. I have heard that they would like to stop eating meat, but they just couldn’t stay healthy on a vegetable based diet, lie. Meat is unhealthy. I don’t know of a single meat-eater who is anywhere near as healthy as I am. They tell me they don’t want to know about the conditions on factories farms because if they knew they couldn’t eat meat anymore and that would just be too hard for them, excuse. This is the one that really makes me mad. To say that you don’t want to know the truth because you know it would force you to do the right thing is just terribly selfish to me. Knowing that finding out the truth will cause you to change your mind is the best reason there is to find out the truth.
I find it extremely upsetting that people lie to themselves like this, but what I find even more upsetting is the way they do this to their children. From the day they are born, parents set their children up to live exactly the same way they do. From day one children are taught to lie to themselves and to justify things that are completely unjustifiable. Food is, of course, the most obvious example of this. Parents say that they are protecting their children by not telling them the truth about what they’re eating, but the truth is they are causing much more damage than they would by just telling them the truth.
I happen to feel that it is detrimental to lie to children about anything. If I have children one day, I have absolutely no intention of leading them to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy although in the long run these lies are probably relatively harmless. But there are some lies that we tell to children that will continue to affect them for their entire lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should tell our children everything. There is nothing wrong with censoring the more traumatic details of life to avoid upsetting a child, but they have a right to know the truth. You don’t have to take a kid into a delivery room when they ask where babies come from, and you don’t have to take them to a factory farm when they ask where bacon comes from. But you also shouldn’t tell them that babies are brought by storks or that bacon grows on trees.
I truly believe that at least ninety percent of all children would never eat meat if they knew what it really was. Don’t believe me? Here’s a challenge to any parents out there with small children. Try telling you kid that the chicken nuggets they’re eating are made out of those cute, fluffy, yellow birds and see if they still want to eat them. The only reason so many adults eat meat is because they have been trained to since they were children. By the time people realize the truth about what they’re eating it’s already ingrained into them that that’s just the way it is. Basically, parents lie to their children until the children are old enough to lie to themselves. I personally don’t think this is any way to live, and I definitely don’t think it’s any way to raise children.
So do me (and yourself) a favor, okay? If you want to keep eating meat fine, but at least be honest with yourself about why you are doing it. It’s not because there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not because it’s necessary. It’s not because you can’t stop. It’s because it’s convenient. It’s because most other people do it. It’s because your parents told you to.
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