Survival Justifications Don't Determine What is Moral
No justifications for survival, pleasure or desire invalidate moral principles. Moral principles are valid even if we ignore them and choose to behave in contradiction to them.
Even if we choose to take the life of a human animal to survive, it never makes it moral. We could be faced with imminent death and the only way to survive would be to murder and eat another human. Doing so wouldn't make our choice for survival moral.
Choice does not dictate what is moral. Morality should be what dictates our choices.
Survival does not dictate what is moral. Morality should stand above survival in motivating our choices.
Taking the life of an innocent free being who did you no harm is not moral. If another consciousness being (i.e. an animal) did nothing to harm or violate you, then you can't justify a reciprocal force as self-defense or retaliation.
To initiate aggression or violence is to become the violator and immoral agent, regardless of the choice to do so or what justifications are motivating your behavior. The non-aggression principle applies to all our actions, not only actions directed at other human animals. The actions directed at other animals beings is either moral or immoral, regardless of who they are.
Veganism is a moral way of life based on moral comprehension.
Veganism excludes the animal kingdom from being exploited, enslaved, harmed, violated or murdered.
Veganism includes eating only from the other 5 kingdoms of life that don't have a psychological dimension or expression arising from their biological state:
- plants
- fungi
- protists
- eubacteria
- archaebacteria
Leave the animal kingdom off the menu!
*Note that veganism is at it's core an ethical and moral position, which includes a diet of plant-based eating. You can be a plant-based dieter and not have moral concern for other animals. Being vegan requires plant-based eating, while plant-based eating doesn't require being vegan.
In the past we may not have been able to survive in certain climates or regions without engaging in exploitation, enslavement or violence against other animals. Regardless, doing something even if it was for the survival of our lives never makes something immoral become moral. But we aren't living in those times. We can not only live, but thrive and be healthier by only eating plants, fungi, etc.
We can rise above a lower modality of consciousness that focuses on survival at the expense of morality. We can choose to live by what is right over what is wrong because we have developed and progressed technologically to be able to do so. Transportation allows us to bring in food, supplements allow us to get any nutrients we are lacking. A variety of plant foods provide everything we need, except for B12 which is a bacteria that is no longer found on plants due to the soil quality and our pesticide and fungicide use.
We can put moral thinking and living above mere survival thinking and living.
We can live in greater alignment with moral principles.
This"*Note that veganism is at it's core an ethical and moral position, which includes a diet of plant-based eating. You can be a plant-based dieter and not have moral concern for other animals. Being vegan requires plant-based eating, while plant-based eating doesn't require being vegan."
This is what is missunderstood by so many new "vegans" sure you can not eat animals but if you still buy products that exploit animals in anyway then how can you call yourself Vegan? Why not just say you are plant based? What is wrong with that?
If you are going to be Vegan, live as Vegan. Follow the core belief that "Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."
Nice post man, keep up the great work.
Absolutely :) People don't seem to think enough about the words they use...
Hi, Thanks for clarifying, i've noticed recently people are considering themselves as vegans but still eating eggs. Altho saying that I was doing the same not too long ago. I fell into using the vegan term by accident because i was mostly vegan and it was the only way to explain to meat eaters what i was doing. I've actually noticed people stumbling into veganism this way.... there's definitely a shift in consciousness happening I think we might see many people just turn vegan over night but many more people will have to do it in baby steps. I'd like to see a page of the 6 kingdomsof life in a school text book very soon.
Yup, words don't seem to matter, because we either don't understand their meaning or don't care hehe. Vegetarian is supposed to be about eating veggies, but now it's been morphed into eggs and dairy products... I think the term vegan was created to address this.
I’m always surprised how misunderstood the word vegan is. I always get the same questions... so you eat fish then? Eggs are ok then, just not dairy? Even when i told my mother for the first time I was going vegan she asked me if turkey was ok then.... great post by the way, I really enjoyed reading it, you made some great points!
This actually reminds me of a funny story, My uncle, many years ago stated going out with a girl, she was vegetarian, now this was Ireland in the 70's where even the roads where meat. He brought his new girlfriend home for a Sunday lunch, a Sunday lunch at the time would have consisted of 2 slices of bacon, sausage, eggs, blood sausage (black pudding ) and white pudding (another mashup of horrible shit). So my grand mother placed a large portion of the above in-front of her, needless to say the girlfriend was not impresses. To which my grand mother replied "what, there's no meat on that plate" To her meat was a roast or similar, no concept of vegetarianism or anything like it.