In regards to eating meat

[yossarian]

Monica, I think your last post was kind of mean, ie. "hurtful". I eat meat, probably mostly because I am "weak-willed" (by another's judgement perhaps), but I have had many other battles to fight, and this is one more that I haven't chosen to take on this lifetime.

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I don't think I've ever been "preached to" by vegetarians. The very few I have met in person have been humble and great people, but I am finding reading this particular thread catalyzing, ie. invoking frustration and anger in me because I understand that unless you are completely off the grid and not participating in modern day society, you are supporting an oppressive societal system in some way. So as awakened beings, we are all basically cognitively dissonant on some level because we are living here in 3D.

But at any rate, it's not going to convince anyone to "change their ways" of conditioned and cultural food choices by implying that they are "less" than yourself in any way (weak-willed, jealous,cognitively dissonant)

Every day I fill my pets food bowl, I do so with love and care for them....I'm am not thinking of the factory-farm industry that I am supporting by purchasing pet food.

Same thing when I put gas in my car or or buy clothing from Target. We live in vast oppressive matrix/system that basically causes harm to those who are "weak" by the stronger. I could choose any number of causes if I was called to activism to advocate for the oppressed.

I am just saying that I find reading this thread not helpful at all in convincing me that I should not eat meat. The cognitive dissonance not only goes both ways, but is very deeply embedded in the matrix.

Let's analyze your emotional reaction in comparison to my reaction.

I'm a meat eater. I'm actually on a low carb diet right now and eat ridiculous amounts of meat. Truth is, I'm embarrassed to admit this because some people on this forum remember me as a vegan and even a raw food vegan. But life circumstances change and now I'm on an animal-heavy diet.

Why don't I feel defensive when I read Monica's post?

I can read this thread and I really feel very little, just a bit of sadness because some part of me would like to get back to vegism. I certainly don't feel accused or hurt or offended or defensive. I recognize clearly that I'm eating animal corpses and that some of them aren't even treated well.

I feel like I have a unique perspective on these social dynamics, both because I've extensively studied psychology and because I'm been on both sides of the fence.

In my opinion it is the people who have not owned up to the horror and the reality of the food system that have these defensive reactions. The earth is an inherently brutal and disgusting place packed with misery and suffering. Many people seem to be raised on an illusion of idyllic nature, peaceful and kind. But it's so not. The nature of life on earth is just inherently disgusting, cruel, horrific.

I've watched every single nature show made by David Attenborough. This involves a direct observation of life in every Earth context. Land, sea, air. He even studies the fungus that lives inside rocks.

None of it exhibits any nobility at all. It's brutal. There is nothing but the indifferent striving of nature to survive, the will to power of every organism. From a certain vantage point you can view the wide scale adaptive evolutionary process whereby life seems to increase itself, but it's still horrific.

I've come to they conclusion that the Earth plane is simply horrific to our spiritual natures. I've really deeply owned up to the brutality and dog eat dog nature of the physical plane. This includes owning up to the brutality and indifference of the human species, a meat based life form that unconsciously strives to increase itself and shies away from no horror.

This entire planet is a holocaust. Someone describes the body of a fat person as a graveyard for animals. Yes, precisely. And the planet itself is also a graveyard for countless billions of life forms, all of whom ultimately meet painful ends.

Anyway my point is just that I'm a meat eater who sees my self as part of the great horror called physical existence. I pragmatically justify my own atrocities but I don't devalue the seriousness or severity of my sins. I'm a sinner who has seen the Holy Spirit yet remained flesh, a sinner who has acknowledged tht Jesus is Lord but still I remain in sin.

All I'm saying is that despite being a meat eater I don't feel defensive and I'm also not going to change my habits anytime soon. I also recognize the horror of my situation. When I see other meat eaters defend themselves and get emotional reactions to non-accusatory statements by veggies I just see people who are trying to keep an illusion alive--the illusion that they arent hurting anyone by eating meat, but also the illusion that the Earth is a nice place and that life is mostly sunshine and rainbows. The illusion that we don't live in one of the planes of Hell. The illusion that God is compassionate but not sadistic. If God is one then he must be the other. If God is omnipotent then he is to blame for all the horror--and compassion is just another mask he puts on as part of a game. He takes off his sadist psychopath mask and puts on a compassionate Buddha mask. The people who react to vegetarians are people who don't want to recognize that God is the one who tortures them and that they themselves are torturers. As above, so below.