I think Tristan is totally right, and it puts an intuition I’ve had into words. I’m not vegan—I am sympathetic to the idea of having this deep emotional dislike of eating animals, I feel like the version of me who has this is a better person, and I don’t have it. From a utilitarian perspective I could easily justify just donating a few bucks to animal charities...but veganism isn’t about being optimally utilitarian. I see it as more of a virtue ethics thing. It’s not even so much that I want to be vegan, but I want to be the kind of person who chooses it. But I’m not sufficiently good of a person to actually do it, which does make me feel somewhat guilty at times. As a salve to my conscience, I’ve recently decided to try giving up chicken entirely, which seems like a solid step forward that is still pretty easy to make.
I don’t think we can rush to judgement on your character so quick. My ability to become a vegan, or rather to at least take this step in trying to be that sort of person, was heavily intertwined with some environmental factors. I grew up on a farm, so I experienced some of what people talk about first hand. Even though I didn’t process it as something overall bad at the time, a part of me was unsettled, and I think I drew pretty heavily on that memory and being there in my vegan transition period.
I guess the point is something like you can’t just become that person the day after you decide you want to be. Sometimes the best thing you can do is try to learn and engage more and see where that gets you. With this example that would mean going to a slaughterhouse yourself and participating, which maybe isn’t a half bad idea (though I haven’t thought this through at all, so I may be missing something).
Also giving up chicken is not a salve, its a great first step, a trial period that can serve as a positive exemplar of what’s possible for the version of yourself that might wish to fully revert back one day. I believe in you, and wish you the best of luck with your journey :)
If you’ve tried and found it a struggle, or suffer from dietary problems, or lack money etc., then fair enough. If not, just do it. It is suprising how often going from frequently doing X to never doing X is much easier than doing X a moderate amount. Maybe going vegan for a, I don’t know, a month? Yeah, a month feels like a decent amount of time. Maybe going vegan for a month will be like that for you. So why not try it?
I feel this way too and I think something that’s equivalently easy as giving up chicken, while having a bigger impact, is to give up eating meat at home, including lunches packed at home and eaten at work (assuming this describes most of your meals). I have done this and it feels great—I eat a lot less meat.
I think Tristan is totally right, and it puts an intuition I’ve had into words. I’m not vegan—I am sympathetic to the idea of having this deep emotional dislike of eating animals, I feel like the version of me who has this is a better person, and I don’t have it. From a utilitarian perspective I could easily justify just donating a few bucks to animal charities...but veganism isn’t about being optimally utilitarian. I see it as more of a virtue ethics thing. It’s not even so much that I want to be vegan, but I want to be the kind of person who chooses it. But I’m not sufficiently good of a person to actually do it, which does make me feel somewhat guilty at times. As a salve to my conscience, I’ve recently decided to try giving up chicken entirely, which seems like a solid step forward that is still pretty easy to make.
I don’t think we can rush to judgement on your character so quick. My ability to become a vegan, or rather to at least take this step in trying to be that sort of person, was heavily intertwined with some environmental factors. I grew up on a farm, so I experienced some of what people talk about first hand. Even though I didn’t process it as something overall bad at the time, a part of me was unsettled, and I think I drew pretty heavily on that memory and being there in my vegan transition period.
I guess the point is something like you can’t just become that person the day after you decide you want to be. Sometimes the best thing you can do is try to learn and engage more and see where that gets you. With this example that would mean going to a slaughterhouse yourself and participating, which maybe isn’t a half bad idea (though I haven’t thought this through at all, so I may be missing something).
Also giving up chicken is not a salve, its a great first step, a trial period that can serve as a positive exemplar of what’s possible for the version of yourself that might wish to fully revert back one day. I believe in you, and wish you the best of luck with your journey :)
If you’ve tried and found it a struggle, or suffer from dietary problems, or lack money etc., then fair enough. If not, just do it. It is suprising how often going from frequently doing X to never doing X is much easier than doing X a moderate amount. Maybe going vegan for a, I don’t know, a month? Yeah, a month feels like a decent amount of time. Maybe going vegan for a month will be like that for you. So why not try it?
Jay,
I feel this way too and I think something that’s equivalently easy as giving up chicken, while having a bigger impact, is to give up eating meat at home, including lunches packed at home and eaten at work (assuming this describes most of your meals). I have done this and it feels great—I eat a lot less meat.