Perspective As To Why One Might Want To Consider Vegetarianism

All my life, whenever I met a vegetarian I would laugh and say to them that their vegetarianism wont stop animals from being killed. I would go as far as to share with them a stupid joke I once heard. "What were vegetarians called 1000 years ago? Bad hunters."

Only recently a thought occurred to me. Perspective is a very important thing. Without it you wouldn't be able to decipher what is going on in your life from the outside in.

And so, let's take a quick look at the difference between us and animals. There is only one thing that separates us and that is the ability to reflect on things and to actually step out from a situation and come up with reasons why we should/shouldn't do certain things.

In my opinion, when one actually thinks about it, animals which we eat, like cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys etc.. These animals, if they too had the ability to step out of a situation and look at it from the outside in (had a higher level of intelligence) - if they had consciousness like we do, I believe that they would choose to not kill and eat us.

Only recently did a certain image pop into my head. This image is of a farm somewhere with filthy, overly fed, naked and freezing people bunched together in a pen like cattle, whilst a pig with a Levi's jacket, a cowboy hat and a shotgun was standing outside of it, looking on.

Given this context, as ridiculous as it might seem, I simply find it hard to continue to eat meat, even if my lack of contribution to the act does nothing to end the murder of these animals. Same way I would have wanted nothing to do with the holocaust, even fought against it because of how wrong it was, I see little difference here.

Now when I walk around and see people eating meat and smiling and going on like it's ok, I can't help but think how in the future when perspective is more a common thing that this will be looked at as barbaric, brutal and vulgar.

Anyway, to conclude I can say that since I stopped eating meat I feel much lighter and healthier. I am a lot calmer and more serene. I truly hope that in the future I am in a position to make real change regarding this issue.