How do you cope with meat eating society?
I've been a vegetarian for over 4 years now and I can't look at people that eat meat the same way as before I turned into a vegetarian.
My closest friends, my parents and all my relatives are meat eaters and I started despizing them for their ignorance and cruelty towards animals. I tried to talk some sense into them but it was a waste of my nerves. Many hide behind their bible (apparently a book that has all the answers).
I know I was like them for most of my life but nobody had to convince me to become a vegetarian. If you care to listen, if you open your mind, you can't ignore all the cruelty around you and you'll remember that you still have a heart.
How can you look at these people without being desgusted? Can you still show them respect and be friends with?
I dont think so! The only solution would be to make new friends. Find people who share the same values and ignore the rest? But what if you live in a small town, where everybody is a meat eating freak and you can't get out of it because of your financial situation?
I'd like to know how you guys are dealing with such issues.
Responses
I am in the same situatiion, I am in China in a city where chicken broth and "Just a little meat" and veggies fried in pork fat are considered vegan food.
I have the sme feelings you do towards people who eat meat, and I did start to see them in a different fashion. howver i find that most people, when we're together would eat vegn food because they feel somehow uncomfortable or embarrassed to eat meat in fornt of me. i don't try to push them just show them buy example how awesome is to be vegan.
also i cook sometimes, and then everyone just eats vegand and most important they enjoy it.
I hope you canfind some like minded people in your area,
Good Luck
Baban78: What an interesting question. Up until the age of 13 years I resented my father for effectively force feeding me meat via his intimidation. I feared him. I was appalled by his occasional brutality yet somehow I still loved him. With the passing of many years I look back, long after his death, and now honestly see the better sides of his character which at the time were largely overlooked. I forgave him, just as equally I now forgive my own ignorance. Whilst I am the last person to ever profess to know any universal 'truths' life has taught me personally that whilst we live in a society that attempts to brainwash us that we all possess equal potential and opportunity such is far from being the truth. Although we are all inextricably linked together we incarnate as individuals, bringing to each incarnation our earlier experiences and growth. For some they may have had many previous incarnations, yet learned little. For others it may be their first incarnation yet their spirituality is golden. Whatever each of our backgrounds is, no two backgrounds are ever the same. Consequently, although we may each have unlimited potential, our pasts are influential on who we are and what we can realistically achieve within each incarnation. Let me assume that you accept this proposition (yet there is no reason why you should) in which case please consider this: Assuming that someone was spiritually advanced, and this partly manifested by him / her loving all forms of life and adopting a vegan lifestyle. (And even that is far from being cruelty free). That person then meets a meat eater (and many are extremely caring individuals their meat eating aside) and wonders how to react to that person. The vegan's initial reaction may well be one of repulsion. But, within seconds we are all capable of controlling our emotions. What next? Continue to feel resentment, protest, possibly even condemn? The vegan reflects…….he loves ALL life forms…………..humans, carnivores, possibly even rats and mosquitos! All well in theory, but let's assume that he still can't put his revulsion aside. He reflects and thinks that we all have the same life choices so why would someone choose to be an exploiter? Of course he is right, yet we all have veins of imperfection running through us and in some cases the vegan's may be greater than the meat eaters. What we eat being only part of a much wider picture. The answer possibly lies within the philosophy of 'forgiveness' (of both others and our reaction to them) which is a philosophy which involves much more than that possibly superficially patronising word suggests. So, we look to our own behaviour rather than the behaviour of others. The answer we discover by reflection and searching our own souls.
Sorry, I don't know what to say. We make up a very small percentage of the population. About 2%. I had a friendship with a vegetarian but it didn't last very long. It's hard, and sad, being so alone. People say you can always make a difference but the truth is, sometimes you can't, and all you can do is forgive, and ignore. There is a fine line between forgiving something unforgivable, like animal abuse or making friends with someone who works at a butchery. Sometimes we look at the worlds problems and we just want to quit or hide in a corner, After all, the people telling us "to go on, and it will get better" are probably meat eaters themselves.
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