Of course, this isn't to make light of clinical (or any serious nonclinical depression) or other emotional and mental illnesses in any way, particularly compassion fatigue to which many activists are prone. Depression runs in my family, and if any vegan has any doubt about whether or not to take necessary medication, he or she should. Be sure to look into compounding pharmacies; it's practical and possible for you to do so. Also consider that there is often little meaningful moral difference between a battle with serious mental illness and being stuck in a lifeboat with a utilitarian. Both can be life-threatening and in those situations, we all do what we must.
What I'm chiding here is the tendency we all have to focus on the negative. I wish I had a dollar for every animal advocate who's ever tried to tell me that �people are evil by nature!�, that �we'll never see change in our lifetime!� or �let's put them in work camps!� (I say this last one a lot, but I'm only joking) or �people are just too dumb to get it!� Let's imagine that that is the case. Let's imagine that there is no hope at all. Let's imagine that you are the only vegan, ever. Let's imagine you'll live to be 1,000 (older than Methuselah). Let's imagine that nonhuman animals will never get free within your life time.
Does any of that make any difference, at all, to what we owe them?
Would you ever stop taking the rights of all animals not to be used as property seriously? Would you ever stop owing nonhuman animals your absolute and unequivocal solidarity embodied as a lived daily pratice in being vegan? Are people ineducable, or do they need regular guidance in order to 'get it'? Are they evil by nature or just confused, encouraged to think only about themselves and have their choices systematically limited by a system that pits all of us against each other?
I don't have the answers to these questions (sorry about that!), but I do know that the surest way to ensure that no one will ever be educated is to not educate them. The surest way to ensure that they continue to behave incorrectly is never to correct them. The surest way to ensure there will never be substantial moral change is to fail to insist that it is not only possible, it is probable, morally necessary and most of all, absolutely undeniably and immediately yours to make.
I've never claimed to know all that much about human nature (at least not after that period in grade school when I wanted to be a Jesuit, as I'm sure we all did). I minored in anthropology in university. Now that I do 'cultural studies,' there's some social science, but it's really more about understanding the art, literature, film and music of other cultures, not the inner workings of the human soul (if there is one). Human beings are remarkably diverse. Some good, some bad, a great many unattractive and smelly, only a few truly morally ugly, but each and every one redeemable.
Is there a human nature? I believe that we all exist in various states of moral confusion about what we owe other human animals and (especially) what we owe other nonhuman animals. This is true even among vegans. The cat, the dog, the cow, the pig, the fish, the giraffe, the soldier, the sexworker and the coffeepicker all have the right not to be used as property; and yet how many of us understand that in absolute completeness or strive to bring the two best words in the English language: justice and equality into our daily lives on a daily basis? No one is perfect; but our best is the best we can do.
I believe in a moral reality, but I also believe that there's often a great deal of fuzz between the way we think, the way we observe and that reality. The ability to be wrong about moral reality, however, our ability to misinterpret it, implies that there is a proper interpretation and that, should we wish to be moral and virtuous (and we all should), then we should strive to understand and act upon that moral reality as best as we can. But what I also know is that sometimes firefighters risk their lives to save companion animals, that Frederick Douglass got free, that the children in concentration camps banded together to protect one another, and that I went vegan a decade ago. I'm far from being the sharpest or shiniest tool in the shed and if I can go vegan, anyone can. At best, the evidence seems mixed.
But if you want things to be different from what they are today, the news isn't just good, it's absolutely wonderful: veganism is one of the easiest and also the most meaningful things you can do if you take justice and equality seriously. Authoritarianism is not the solution; it's the problem. Pessimism is not realism; it's counter-revolutionary. And what I owe nonhuman animals isn't a lot of soul-searching or complaining, it's work, determination and a little bit of love (but not in the utilitarian way).
I'm calling on us all to take the emo CD off repeat. If you're not vegan now, go today. If you're not already an abolitionist, learn more about how you can work to end animal slavery. But most of all, stop waiting for the world to change by itself. Stop waiting for leadership. Stop waiting for organizations. Remember that you are a force of nature, that you struggled out of a womb, that you fought your way through junior high-school, and that if anyone can change, it's you. Change the record, change yourself and change the world. Today is your day.
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