You can’t escape them. It is reality. The only way would be to run off into the wilderness and never
pay taxes. If you have a bike, a car,
or fly in planes. If you read books, or
listen to CD’s, or buy bottles, if you are using a computer, or if you watch
films or if you pay taxes then you are directly or indirectly using animal
products. All these products and many
many more use animal products to make them.
From the milk protein casein that is used to hold your label onto your
bottles, to the gelatin they use in film and movies. I’ve even heard plastic isn’t vegan. I’d bet it isn’t.
So even the most hard core among us
has a touch of hypocrite in them, if not a ton of it. When we say ‘I don’t consume animal products’ it is really a
white lie. When I first heard tires had
animal products in them (even bike tires) I had a few moments of
unclarity. “Give up cars… I suppose, but give up bikes?” Who’s willing to walk everywhere, buy
organic fruit from organic food markets, live under the stars, never pay a dime
to organized crime (government), and grow organic cotton to make cloths? Not many people. I doubt I could, even though it would be a great fantasy if there
was a beautiful girl with me who didn’t smell that bad if she hadn’t showered
in a few days. If she was tall that
would be great too.
We have many options of course. Do whatever we can, eliminate as much as we
can, and as consumers demand products that are ethically constructed. Try to take back our government and make
them stop subsidizing beef and dairy industries and let us decide if we want to
support the government killing animals and people. (Death penalty, Iraq, the whole Kosovo affair.) Or we can just give up and do the 9-5 and
take our kid’s to McD’s for lunch.
As vegans we must deal with this
reality and come to terms with it.
Vegans should decide where their green line lies. At what point being hardcore makes life
nearly impossible and stop just before it.
Do you decide to never buy books because you don’t know if the glue is
vegan and if the pictures were taken with a digital plastic camera or a normal
camera with gelatin? Do you decide to
buy new tires for you car to keep your kids safe even though they aren’t vegan? Do you send money to the Sierra club, even
though computers are pervasive in their organization and computers aren’t
vegan? And we know all their pictures
probably aren’t vegan in their magazines anyway. There is a point you have to define for yourself. Feel confident about it and stand by
it.