Bad Vegan

I recently had a wonderful time out with my wife and a great group of friends. We went to a vegan restaurant/bar, but I was one of the only vegans. Later in the evening, the conversation turned to the common topic of how I am much more agreeable and easy to get along with than most vegans. Several disparaging comments were made about vegans as a whole and I felt like I left a lot unsaid.

I am a vegan because I think that choosing to use, kill and consume other animals is the wrong path and choice for humanity, and me as an individual, on many fronts. I personally empathize deeply with all animals and people, and see empathy and compassion as some of the most important traits for human health, happiness and survival. I also see veganism as utterly critical with regard to global resource demand issues, pollution control and climate change concerns.

Simultaneously, I’m a bit nihilist-like. I don’t think the universe cares one way or other whether we survive, prosper, suffer or experience joy. I view emotions as evolved traits that allow us to survive individually and collectively. They are incredibly important, but only to us and other animals.

I also believe that individual choice and freedom is very important, because I believe that defining absolute right and wrong, particularly with my world view, is nearly impossible to do in any sort of simple, binary fashion. Collectively I think we can establish right and wrong choices with regard to collective survival and happiness, and create laws to manage our society, but it is a very, very tricky line.

This leaves me in a complicated spot.

On one side, I tend to view most human beings as participating in a horribly unhealthy and abusive relationship with nature and each other by farming, using, killing and consuming other animals. I think this is both unintelligent and dangerous to our survival as a species, and cruel to animals. I don’t see it as ‘evil’ generally… just selfish and willfully ignorant with horrendous consequences and daily negatives to our social culture and other sentient beings. To be fair, I make similarly poor choices in other areas as well (too much energy usage, physical waste generation, etc.), but few have as much impact as use and consumption of animals and animal products.

On the other side, I think many vegans and animal rights activists are both unrealistic and simplistic in their monolithic views of morality and their judgement of humans for *all* killing and consumption of animals. Yes, I think the vast majority of animal usage and consumption is a horrible idea on many fronts. However, I think veganism is a mentality that can only really thrive and exist in a state of privilege. Sure, people can incidentally be vegan because of lack of access to animals, but the actual belief system of veganism means you have created the mechanisms and systems to not have to hunt and live like other animals. At a certain point in human existence, I think we have the same justifiable right to kill, use and eat other animals as any animal does. I just think we have the ability and the need to move past it as we develop. We are just *way* past the point where we should be doing that for the vast majority of humans.

That being said, of the two, I think the difference is that vegans are trying their best to create a better state of existence and a better world, and they are doing it through personal sacrifice, passion and work. The vast majority of the rest of humanity is choosing convenience, personal enjoyment and tradition with the direct result of massive resource use, pollution, pain and suffering for billions of sentient beings, and to the detriment of their own sense of empathy and ability to connect with their environment and each other.

I am able to be vegan because of my privilege, my education, my community and my geographical location. I also think I have the *responsibility* to make that choice because I have been given that foundation. If you are a person with that same foundation, which is most of the people I know, you are also responsible for your choice. The tricky part is that we are all on this giant earth thing together. Your choices affect me. My choices affect you. Vegans are choosing to sacrifice to help all of us survive and have a world that does not condone violence and the use of other beings for pleasure and convenience. Everyone else is choosing to put us all in danger for their personal benefit.

I’m understanding and not critical of people in developing tribal environments, isolated geographical locations and other complicated personal situations that require that they still pursue subsistence living. The rest of humanity is making a choice. It’s the wrong one. Not from some abstract morality point of view. It’s the wrong one because it is bad for *all* of us. I do not condone it, but I also don’t feel like I can enforce it, or even ‘judge’ those who do not make that choice. Part of me wants to rage and enforce it because of my empathy for other animals, because they can’t protect themselves. Then I realize that I would be fully alienated and ineffective, and that others could do the same thing with the opposing point of view. Vegans are a pretty small minority.

I made a poor comparison tonight between veganism and the pro-life movement. I do believe there are some similarities, but I didn’t get to fully flush out the point. Both groups care deeply and passionately about preserving life and preventing suffering. Both groups are somewhat on the fringes of the global morality spectrum. Both groups have the ability and tendency to be too monolithic in their points of view, and not be accepting of the realities of human existence. However, the similarities end there.

The pro-life movement is only important collectively at the point that it is saving actual functional humans, and even that may not benefit us as a species. The ‘potential’ and ‘soul’ arguments are erroneous and entirely unverifiable respectively. There is a point of argument in there about our empathy and compassion, but it is about a narrow window of time between what is currently legal and a slightly earlier point in development if you believe awareness and sentience happens earlier. Regardless of whether or not it is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, adding more people to the planet, and into environments where they are not wanted or supported is *not* going to help us as a species. It may be that our willingness to terminate pregnancies is harming our collective psyche, but I see it as much worse to not honor the autonomy and rights of women. And if you make it illegal, you just increase the deaths… you don’t stop it. Veganism, on the other hand, is truly beneficial to humanity and human health, happiness and survival in *every* way. It is an evolution in human thinking and a vastly more intelligent way to use our resources and manage our environment. It increases empathy, awareness of nutrition, food safety, creativity and overall connection with our habitat. Additionally, if everyone were doing it, we would master the various tastes, textures, materials and conveniences we currently have from animal derived products in an incredibly short time. People are already working on it because they see the resource and market benefit. Imagine if *everyone* was doing that. And just as importantly, although less of a rational point, it would greatly reduce the suffering of sentient beings in the world. I know people care about animals. The internet is *filled* with examples. The issue is that we only extend that privilege to the ones we call pets, even though the differences between them and the animals we use, torture and kill is just aesthetics and labeling. We’ve done that with groups of humans for most of history. Nearly all of us see the irrationality and tragedy of that now. Eventually we will see that about all non-human animals.

So essentially I sometimes feel like a bad vegan. I allow what I see as a critical issue to seem less urgent. I accommodate those I care about and those around me when I know their choices are harming all of us. I often do it with the justification that I don’t think judgement, external enforcement or head-butting criticism are effective in changing points of view. I think there is some truth to that. However, I also just want to be a part of humanity. I want to have friends. I want my wife to not feel judged by me. So I accommodate, I sympathize and I fail.

I hope the world will wake up at some point so I don’t have to straddle this divide.