To be alive involves killing. Consumption. To one degree or another. This is the nature of the biological life in the universe as we know it. Simple economics. For a being to have and consume something, that something must be subtracted from existence in its present form.
Many of the food products vegans consume involve mass industrial farming/agriculture which kills inumerable small animals living in the fields. This is just one tentacle of that beast. It takes life in many other ways, too.
But I, like the vegans, would like to inflict as little suffering as possible even on non-human animals.
Simultaneously, I don’t wish to adopt a diet that has not proven safe and healthy for me (in my view — I know many would disagree vehemently with me here, and say I just “did it wrong”). I’m not keen on trusting a “supplement,” to help me get critical vitamins and minerals, either.
I don’t see animals such as cows and pigs as equals to humans in every sense. Nor do I see them as just “meat” or “livestock” without feelings or sentience.
If I had my own small farm, and had to kill my dinner myself, I think that would be a cleaner way to live. With a bit of reverence for the life being taken. I’ve done construction jobs and visited large pig and dairy farms. The atmosphere and practices engaged in are disgusting and wrong.
If I ate mainly seafood, maybe that would be even better.
I have been very rigorous in the development of my libertarian philosophy, and am not afraid of any debate or challenge there, really.
But this area — the one of diet — still sometimes gives me serious dissonance inside. Sure, animals cannot understand human property norms or self-ownership in the way that we can. Still, they have their own systems.
It’s a strange thing.
My current position is that I want to do less damage and take less life.
I, at present, do put humans first. I wouldn’t fault a dog or a tiger for putting their own kind first, either. Should aliens invade with intelligence that makes humans look like pigs, I suppose I should not complain if I am first on the dinner plate.
There is an inconsistency, I suppose. If I opposed being eaten by them.
One thing I will say, which is illustrative of something. Though, even now I am not sure exactly what that something is, is people’s response to the following scenario:
You are driving very fast across a bridge with high guardrails on each side and no sidewalk or shoulder. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a man and his dog enter the roadway from somewhere. Your brakes go out. There is nowhere to swerve, but by virtue of the way these two beings are positioned, you can take one of them out, and it will save the other’s life. Which one do you swerve at in this hypothetical situation with no other way out?
Everyone who is honest with themselves, including vegans — with no knowledge of the moral character of the man — chooses the dog.
Anyway, this is not to justify any suffering I cause.
Just some thoughts.
Wrestling, as usual.
