The psychology of meat-eating

So you get together with your meat-eating friends who hear about your veganism for the first time. And they go something like

• You, vegan? Don't tell me it's for the animals, is it???
• And they say that in such a derogatory manner that, yes, you're tempted to lie and invent some excuse. But you gather courage enough to say the truth, albeit quite modestly, in the lines of
• Well yeah, among other things, it's because of my thoughts on the ethics of killing animals
• And then comes the utterly surprising reaction, usually something along the line of
• Oh yeah, that's a pretty good reason, you know, I do agree with you, but I just like meat too much.

Fascinating, isn't it? And, truth be said, the most fascinating about it is that before turning vegan (soon about six months ago by the way), I used to ask the same kind of question and have the same kind of reaction. Yes. Actually, I had a talk along those lines with Bjørn Lomborg. Yes, I am ashamed of that now.

So my conclusion is this. Everybody does feel uncomfortable about the animal-killing industry, in the same way I've always felt. I don't pretend to be anymore compassionate than the average guy; in fact, I'd say I'm quite probably less compassionate. The only difference is that I took the time to think about what I already knew, and accept the consequences.

So why the aggressive stance against anyone else who knows the same things as we do, but accepts the consequences we don't want to accept? Well I daresay, the answer is quite obvious if you're familiar with either The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged, in other words, the work Aunt Ayn has done on the question. We want others to help us believe in a lie we don't believe in ourselves, by pretending they do. We want their approval for the pretending. We want to replace our perception of the truth by the beliefs of others. So of course, we're angry at them if they don't play the game. But, at the same time, we do know the truth, so at some point, if they state it too plainly, we cannot but stop the hypocrisy and agree.

2009-05-03