Veganism is an unfamiliar and absurd ideology for many people as most of us were not born vegan. It was started for a reason, to love more compassionately and whole-heartedly to all life who suffer for humanity. On the other hand, there are also reasons that people are 'hooked up' to meat, dairy and egg that even though they have heard of the cruelty done towards animals, they are unable to give up animal products in their life. This book talks about veganism from the perspective of History, Science, Society and Culture. It's a fun read, packed with information that will leave you 'ooh' and 'ahh'. Don't worry there is no discrimination of non-vegans there. If you are a non-vegan but are curious about why humans are so addicted to meat, this is the right book for you.
The last part of this book attracts my attention the most. This world needs encouragement to go vegan, not condemnation. I was once a 'newborn' vegan (the kind of newborn in Twilight, I find that we are similar, hahaha) who is eager to get the messages out so that more people around me could learn the truth and stop the behaviours that are harmful to their health, the environment and also morality of humanity. I felt very angry (of what people do to the poor souls in factory farms and slaughterhouses), desperate (as people are still being brainwashed and blinded by the myths that meat eating is good) and sad (that the suffering of animals will not stop overnight, it might go on for decades or centuries) at the same time after finding out the truth through documentaries. This concoction of feelings lasted strongly around 3 months and finally rationality got back to my head. I do not mean that I no longer feel angry, desperate and sad, but I have better control of these emotions in daily life. Then I realised that there are too much hate towards non-vegans, by non-vegans I mean meat eaters, flexitarian, reductarian and vegetarian. Or even worse, towards our fellow vegans who own purebred dogs, using palm oil products or eating mock meat (nothing is wrong with eating mock meat as long as it is vegan, ok?).
I understand the frustration, but veganism is not about pursuing perfection so that our hands are completely clean from animals' blood and tears. From being a meat eater, going for a flexitarian or reductarian diet is a step towards the right direction by having mainly vegetarian meals with occasional animal products. It will be marvellous if we can move on to a vegetarian diet after getting the hang of where to get vegetarian food or how to cook our own meals. Not everyone can or dare to jump straight into veganism, especially in a country where veganism is not trendy yet. We feel insecure and scared that we might not be able to blend in with the society, our family and friends if we go vegan as people might think that we are extreme. It is not wrong to take baby steps so that people around us can get used to having a vegan among them. If having a diet without meat is still a difficult thing to start with, maybe we can stop buying products that have conducted animal testings or contain animal skin, fur and wool. We can choose to adopt pets from the shelter instead and stop supporting circuses and animal performances. There are a lot of things we can do to reduce the suffering of animals, starting with one thing at a time. Eventually we can include more aspects of veganism in our life because every choice that we made matters to our well being, to the animals and to the environment. Need motivation? Watch this video below (this is the video that gave me determination to make a change!):
Dear fellow vegans, sometimes we got carried away by the self righteous feelings of speaking up for the voiceless that we commented stupid things that we might regret later. But we do it for the sake of the animals, we love them to the state that we are willing to give up exploiting them even though meat eating has been in our cultures for so long. This compassion and kindness that we have towards the animals should be extended to people as well, knowing that they have been lied to by the industries or conditioned by the cultures they are living in. Learning about the truth can be a shock to many people that people repulse the truth to protect themselves. Approaching non-vegans to talk about veganism is not easy, but remember: have courage, and be kind. Cheers~