As a disclaimer, Id like to clarify that this post is not meant to offend anybody. Its may contain some of my views on the ideal life style which may conflict with your habits. This blog is a way of bringing out my thoughts, and that I shall do today.
I happened to stumble upon this community on facebook called 'vegetarians'. Having been a vegetarian for 20 years, I instantly liked the community and joined it. Since then, Ive been spending around 1/3rd of my day time in reading articles and posting stuff on that community. Initially I used to read posts and reply sometimes, but later on, when I saw people around the world making colossal efforts to forgo their diet for many years, and turn vegetarian out of love for animals and a desire for a healthier diet, I couldn't help but get more involved. I hunted for celebrity names that are vegetarians, videos on youtube about vegetarianism and similar articles to help re-affirm their belief.
The debate of vegetarianism against meat eating is a very old one and "Everyone is entitled to their own views, beliefs and practices" is the most convenient way to end this debate. In my opinion there is no question for a debate, or rather, there is no use of the debate in which one party refuses face-to-face confrontation , or see the truth and simply resorts to lame excuses to find its way out.
Vegetarianism is mainly classified into 2 categories.
1) Vegetarianism due to health reasons.
2)"ethical vegetarianism"
I respect and appreciate people who fall into the second category. "ethical vegetarianism" is vegetarianism embraced out of affection, concern and sympathy towards the millions of animals that are tortured/killed for food. This is the kind of vegetarianism that I stand for, and personally believe that If one were to go vegetarian purely for the first cause, he'd better remain a meat eater. You could exercise, work out eat meat and still be healthier than most of the veggies around. "Health problems" although can be a very good reason to turn vegetarian, especially if your not the physically active type, doesn't form the essence of vegetarianism. Its a tool used by animal right activists and vegetarians to convince the meat eaters to quit meat. I for one, believe that one needs to understand why he's turning a veggie, and more importantly how his sacrifice affects another animal.
With all that said, lets have a look at some of the arguments of the meat eaters. It ranges from dietitians disputing the harms caused by a non veg diet, to religious men reading out verses from their books, to 'common man', the typical lazy-ass fellow who likes to feed on beef and chicken 2 times a day carrying a 'care a damn' attitude blatantly replying that he doesn't care for animals. I really despise these people. A very popular argument Ive been hearing time and again recently is that plants too can feel pain (Backed by scientific research) , and hence it wouldn't be fair to prevent killing of animals on one hand and feeding on plants on the other. Another argument I very recently heard was that 'as we speak', we kill millions of microbes, which is a 'non vegetarian act'.
With all due respects to debaters of the meat eater's cause, I feel that man is running away from reality today. He fears confrontation, he fears to face his guilt. None of the meat eaters is so naive and ignorant as to not know where the meat he eats comes from. And, all of us through some or the other physical accidents or experiences know what feeling pain means. We also know that alike man, even the hens, lambs, cows, pigs, ducks... feel pain. Yet man is so irrational and self centered that he refuses to put 1 and 1 to arrive at 2. Today's meat eater is a selfish man running away from reality, valuing his 'taste' more than the lives of innocent, helpless creatures.
Here are a few reasons which i cite to recommend vegetarianism:
1) First and foremost, "we can live without it, and they(animals) will live, without it". Scientific study shows that man's teeth, and limbs are not made to hunt animals and eat them. His digestive system cannot handle pure meat. Thats how man is different from the other carnivorous animals, In the sense that these animals have the physical power, and the sharp body parts to hunt down and kill, and a digestive system that demands only meat. By that I mean, a lion or tiger or an eagle cannot live on green food. Man's entry into non-vegetarianism was only possible because of his high intellect, and superior thinking ability which helped him to come up with sharp tools during the stone ages and more complex machinery in the modern day to prey upon and kill animals. The very 'superior thinking ability' that will tell him killing animals is bad, call it irony. Our cousins, the gorillas and the monkeys, (genetically very close to use), are herbivores. (eating insects doesn't count as meat eating). Our digestive system was originally meant for herbivorous food (which obviously has changed over ages, and adapted/evolved to digest meat). The basic point of the argument is, that we can survive on herbivorous food (there are communities/ sections of societies around the world, that have for ages remained vegetarians-happy and healthy), and we need not kill innocent animals for the same food.
2) Man today calls himself a poet, a writer, a philosopher, a doctor, a healer. He possesses the "higher thought". Now It really amazes me, how the same doctor who strives to cure a human suffering from pains, a poet who writes, expresses emotions and feelings of pain and happiness from his heart, and a mother who cares for the safety of her child and can't see her child in pain, all of these people enjoy the taste of carcasses of dead animals which have gone through immense pains and torture (which happens for months before the slaughter) to be served as food. If only the animals dying everyday had poets who could express their grief. If only the mother of the dying animals could speak out of her pains. If only these animals were fit to defend themselves. Paul McCartney said "If slaughter houses had glass walls, everybody would be vegetarian". To sum up the point, just ask yourself this question: "Would I be happy to see my loved ones and myself slaughtered and slit open to be served as food to a stronger authority, who by the way can do without the killing?".
This video must be seen Iff and only iff you want to. It shows the bitter truth inside slaughter houses,
skip if you want to.
And now, to answer the popular arguments that I earlier mentioned,
1) Fruits that are plucked and eaten from plants are meant to be separated from the plant body. The seeds in the fruit cause germination, and we act as facilitators to this process. Any part of a plant body cut out and eaten can grow back on it.(If a portion of the stem is cut out, it can grow back) The same doesn't apply to the animals we feed on.
2) Killing microbes is not something that's under our control. I cannot prevent the killings of microbes even if i wished to. If this is still not convincing, lets say the vegetarian kills a number 'x' of microbes as he speaks. If we were to assume, that the meat eater kills the same number 'x', still, the vegetarian manages to save more lives than the meat eater. Besides, when we talk of microbes, they are just cells that do not have a nervous system or show a clear indication of 'pain'.
To sum it all up, We need to stop running away from facts. The truth is ugly, but we cannot conveniently hide our faces from it and run away in guilt, to value 'taste' more than 'lives', and at the same time call ourselves civilized, learned, thoughtful, emotional, and mature beings. That would be total hypocrisy wouldn't it?
PS: This is not an attempt from my side to make people go vegetarian. All these points and arguments were justs thoughts that appeared in my mind to consolidate my beliefs and convince myself to continue with being a veggie!
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