Random Ruminations on How I Came to be a Vegetarian

I'm sure this will alienate a good portion of my readers, but here goes. (And a shout-out to Markus in my comments section yesterday--this is probably one of the better examples of where self-reflection/philosophy and actively DOING something overlap, and maybe an even BETTER example of where WRITING something is in itself an active attempt at DOING something about the state of existence. Look how fired up you've gotten me! Heh heh.)

Anyways, I've been a vegetarian for... a little bit over eight years or so. When I originally decided to go veggie, it was for non-ethical reasons. I hadn't really given a damn thought to what went into the meat that I was giving up. I was a freshman in college and I was feeling the need to exert SOME sort of control over my life since everything was new and crazy and scary. So (inspired by my sister Lesley who's been vegetarian for even LONGER than me and started when she was like 11 or something) I decided that my diet would be a good--and healthy--way to exert some control over at least SOME aspect of my life. You see, I'm a bit of a control freak, so when my life gets sucked up into a whirlwind of chaos, I always find myself trying to retain control over SOME aspect of my life to make myself feel better--whether it be my diet (I was also vegan for a couple years--one of the most extreme forms of dietary self-control), or getting tattooed or pierced (an exertion of one's ultimate control over one's body by choosing what will become a permanent part of it). These things center me when things get crazy.

This was my mindset for a couple of years. I went into it to exert control over my life in some sorta way when my life felt like it was spinning out of control in that segue between high school and college, and I did a damn good job at it. After the first few months of meat-cravings subsided, I kept at it without ever looking back. And truly, I can't see myself EVER returning to a diet that includes meat.

Markus note: This is what I'd consider to be action without self-reflection. It served a purpose for me at that given moment (although it wasn't until years later that I realized the purpose it was serving), but it wasn't a self-reflective action.

Anyways, two or three years into my vegetarianism, I was working at the library and picked up a book called Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz. This book shook my world up in just a few hours of reading. Now, believe me--I'm not into the sensationalizing of vegetarianism and animal rights that certain groups that will remain nameless (couPETAgh) like to engage in; in one respect what they do is valuable in that they get word out to the public about things that need to be known, but on the other hand, they make vegetarians look like crazies a lot of the time--like we're always sitting in the wings waiting to throw paint on your fur coat or pie a speaker in the face. But Slaughterhouse was a journalistic endeavor that, unfortunately, never saw the light of the television airwaves like it should have. In it, Eisnitz not only points out the suffering that animals are forced to endure as they go through the factory-farming process and then the slaughterhouse; she also focuses on the HUMAN aspect of destruction involved in the meat industry, from slaughterhouse workers who suffer debilitating carpel tunnel injuries and/or mental suffering from the job of slaughtering to the number of children (and adults) who've died as a result of improper meat inspection. I mean, I was just AMAZED at how much I hadn't thought about when I went into the whole vegetarianism-thing. By the time I finished reading the book, I KNEW that there was no way in hell that I'd ever go back to eating meat.

Wanting to know more about the topic, I feverishly went on to read more books about animal rights and vegetarianism, some notables being

Animal Liberation--Peter Singer;

The Sexual Politics of Meat--Carol J. Adams;

and most recently (and most popularly), Fast Food Nation

--Eric Schlosser.

Sidenote to Markus again--This is what I mean about the self-reflective act. Despite the fact that perhaps my actions WERE valuable initially simply because I was one less person pumping the market for meat-products, the action became a more valuable one ONCE I had reflected upon it. Now I am knowledgeable on the topic, can defend myself in arguments about vegetarianism, can do little write-ups on web pages like this one (in an attempt to "educate" others), etc.

Anyways, I could go on and on and on (believe me) about why I am vegetarian or why other people should at least educate themselves on the topic before they continue to eat meat, but as I only have limited space, I'll keep it short. Plus, I know there will be a billion and one comments in my comment section today (or I at least hope there will be) with people all riled up by my comments here, so I figure I'll just wait until then to yammer on some more about these topics.

The not-so-philosophical reason I don't eat meat:
I love animals. Any damn animal really. I love being around them and something about them (some ineffable quality they possess)--maybe their innocence, their inability to defend themselves, their affectionateness (in some cases), their beauty--and I can't imagine ever wanting to contribute to their needless deaths. I won't eat cow or pig simply for the same reason I won't cut up our family dog and serve her for dinner.

The more philosophical reason I don't eat meat:
I object to the whole concept of factory-farming, of turning animals (LIVING BEINGS) into faceless products, commodities. I object to the fact that a good portion of the general public allow animals' lives and beauty to be stripped away from them and WILLFULLY allow themselves to remain blind and ignorant about what goes into the food on their plates. We are not a people who NEED to eat meat anymore. We exist in a world where killing animals is not necessary for survival. And as I've demonstrated (and as the increasing number of vegetarians in the world prove), it is possible to live a healthy life free of meat. So eating meat causes unjustifiable and unnecessary suffering not for survival purposes but SIMPLY FOR THE SELFISH SAKE OF OUR TASTEBUDS. That, that, is a crime.

So...

Random question for the day: What are your views on vegetarianism?

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