Better Choices Equal Compassionate Response

One argument I often hear is that vegans believe they are better then meat eaters, that they judge people who eat meat as less compassionate. Maybe some do. I don't think the majority do though - just the opposite in face - the believe they are better than NO being. Hence the refusal to eat them. Perhaps the vegan viewpoint is lost in translation and comes across in a manner that doesn't best serve its purpose. Recently I had an on-line discussion where a person declared that being a vegan doesn't make one a better person. I disagreed. I am a better person. And so would be any meat eater who changed their diet to cruelty free. Please notice that I offered no comparison - I did not say that I am a better person than someone who eats meat - but I am a better person then I was when I consumed animals. See - at a certain point compassion is realized as either including the whole of the universe or nothing at all. Compassion is often confused with selective caring - is it compassion when we care about a mistreated dog, cat or horse and then turn around and eat the flesh of an animal that was tortured in ways best left unsaid? It's not that we're not compassionate beings - we all have the seeds of compassion within us - it's that we largely leave the depth of our concern and care (and empathy) unexplored out of the fear of the changes that would have to occur given the compassionate response to the horrors of modern agriculture. So people practice selective caring - it allows them to feel good about their choices without making any changes. Tragically those choices lead to this continuing -

 The animal above was treated this way for one reason - our appetite. Our every meal is a choice and we can choose compassion. We can choose this instead -


Yet we don't. We refuse to recognize that this takes place for the pleasure of our every meal. That's a choice and it makes the person who chooses this less than the person they could be - less than the person they should be. We need to practice compassion. All the time. In all ways. Especially at meal time.

Peace,
Eric