(this post has been long due. It is quite inspired by a nice POV discussed on quora (joey flores). In fact I have quoted him verbatim in some places. PG-R for explicit language.)
Why I am vegetarian (in no particular order) -
a) I have always been one all my life and I find it impossible to change my eating habits now. I am not even able to think of situations like "if I were a non-vegetarian", or "how does chicken-taste like" (even when I am writing this question, I am not able to think anything more about it. It is that psychological for me now)
b) I am Jain by religion and it is prohibited in my religion
c) It goes against my principles. You may argue vegetation is also life. I agree with it. But there is a higher order killing involved (the life of a 5-sensory organism + humungous number of microbes inside it and those that inhabit the carcass) to get a non-veg meal than a vegetarian meal (a single sense organism + microbes at the roots (but then, I don't eat roots for the same reason).
d) I am able to satisfy all my body needs (including tasty food and proteins) with vegetarian food, so I don't feel the need of converting to the other side at all, even when I am living abroad where vegetarian options are few. I am routinely able to kick ass of hard-core fit non-vegetarians in various sports activities. I don't need to mention that it is a scientifically proven fact that vegetarian diet is healthier than its counterpart.
e) If I have to eat meat, I wouldn't mind human meat. Don't be a hypocrite. Apparently it is the tastiest meat out there. You should also try dog meat (some tribals do). Yes, eat the meat of the animal that you pet.
f) The way meat is prepared is equivalent to pure murder. Just watch Food Inc. if you aren't convinced. Even then, there is no 'less painful' way of preparing meat- it is still murder.
Why I am justifying my choice?
Vegetarianism stirs debates. Long and seemingly unending ones. Why is that so controversial?
Most vegetarians out there choose vegetarianism because of (a), (b) or because they believe they are making a compassionate choice by avoiding animal products. When such a person tells you these reasons, it makes you feel that anyone not making that choice lacks compassion.
Many of my friends make fun of my eating choices when I am around. When I am not around, they eat meat without much thought at all. So, why do people who normally put very little thought about eating meat suddenly feel they have to proactively bring it to the forefront when I am there and make a controversy out of my choice? They just go on and on about how delicious it is, even though they know that it's something that bothers me a lot. After all, I call it murder.
The kind of lame arguments I get to hear almost every time this debate rages on-
meat- eater--> man has been after all a meat eater from the start. Hence I am a meat- eater. Is this where I kill that guy?
me--> for the record, he also ate fruits and vegetation, except he probably didn't know how to do agriculture for a long time. Furthermore, existence of tools which might have been used for hunting does not imply that the entirety of mankind were meat- eaters. More importantly, the fact that some prehistoric brainless git of an ancestor ate meat does not justify your meat eating. If it does, then you should also indulge in theft, cannibalism, murder, rape and such activities that some ancestor or the other definitely indulged in. Hypocritical bastard. All these activities have the same morality- violence.
meat- eater--> I don't get enough proteins
me--> pulses, milk, soy all are rich in proteins. Now I understand, you all are just 5th grade students who are mama's boys and don't want to eat good food. Not a single fuck will be given to you.
meat- eater--> It is a part of the natural food chain.
me--> So why do you care only about the food chain? Start caring about ecology, about the environment, about how man has been anything but a part of nature and been shit-raping it. There is always a choice. The meat you eat was never a part of food chain to begin with. They were artificially bred. In gigantic numbers.
meat- eater--> The animal has no other purpose in life. It must be happy to have let a being of higher intelligence survive on it.
me--> No one asked you to decide that. You are not God. Just because you breed them doesn't give you the right to kill them. Lets kill you and offer you as a human sacrifice to one of those farcical Gods you find everywhere. I bet you should be happy about it as you, a lower being is being offer to a higher being- whether you acknowledge it or not (did the animal acknowledge your beliefs?).
It becomes a controversy because at the end of the day, my choice infringes on their ability to do what they want without thinking about the consequences of their actions on other life forms. They see me asking the waiter to avoid animal products and they know that I think what they're doing is wrong. They're not passionate about the topic, but they'll argue it as rabidly as I do. It's not because their opinion is terribly important to them in general. They argue so forcefully because to lose the argument is to lack compassion and acknowledge the wrongness in creating suffering of others. So, they make a joke of the vegan lifestyle, most of the time not because they think it's silly, but because it has to be proven silly so that they will be seen as the 'good people with the right choices'.
a) I have always been one all my life and I find it impossible to change my eating habits now. I am not even able to think of situations like "if I were a non-vegetarian", or "how does chicken-taste like" (even when I am writing this question, I am not able to think anything more about it. It is that psychological for me now)
b) I am Jain by religion and it is prohibited in my religion
c) It goes against my principles. You may argue vegetation is also life. I agree with it. But there is a higher order killing involved (the life of a 5-sensory organism + humungous number of microbes inside it and those that inhabit the carcass) to get a non-veg meal than a vegetarian meal (a single sense organism + microbes at the roots (but then, I don't eat roots for the same reason).
d) I am able to satisfy all my body needs (including tasty food and proteins) with vegetarian food, so I don't feel the need of converting to the other side at all, even when I am living abroad where vegetarian options are few. I am routinely able to kick ass of hard-core fit non-vegetarians in various sports activities. I don't need to mention that it is a scientifically proven fact that vegetarian diet is healthier than its counterpart.
e) If I have to eat meat, I wouldn't mind human meat. Don't be a hypocrite. Apparently it is the tastiest meat out there. You should also try dog meat (some tribals do). Yes, eat the meat of the animal that you pet.
f) The way meat is prepared is equivalent to pure murder. Just watch Food Inc. if you aren't convinced. Even then, there is no 'less painful' way of preparing meat- it is still murder.
Why I am justifying my choice?
Vegetarianism stirs debates. Long and seemingly unending ones. Why is that so controversial?
Most vegetarians out there choose vegetarianism because of (a), (b) or because they believe they are making a compassionate choice by avoiding animal products. When such a person tells you these reasons, it makes you feel that anyone not making that choice lacks compassion.
Many of my friends make fun of my eating choices when I am around. When I am not around, they eat meat without much thought at all. So, why do people who normally put very little thought about eating meat suddenly feel they have to proactively bring it to the forefront when I am there and make a controversy out of my choice? They just go on and on about how delicious it is, even though they know that it's something that bothers me a lot. After all, I call it murder.
The kind of lame arguments I get to hear almost every time this debate rages on-
meat- eater--> man has been after all a meat eater from the start. Hence I am a meat- eater. Is this where I kill that guy?
me--> for the record, he also ate fruits and vegetation, except he probably didn't know how to do agriculture for a long time. Furthermore, existence of tools which might have been used for hunting does not imply that the entirety of mankind were meat- eaters. More importantly, the fact that some prehistoric brainless git of an ancestor ate meat does not justify your meat eating. If it does, then you should also indulge in theft, cannibalism, murder, rape and such activities that some ancestor or the other definitely indulged in. Hypocritical bastard. All these activities have the same morality- violence.
meat- eater--> I don't get enough proteins
me--> pulses, milk, soy all are rich in proteins. Now I understand, you all are just 5th grade students who are mama's boys and don't want to eat good food. Not a single fuck will be given to you.
meat- eater--> It is a part of the natural food chain.
me--> So why do you care only about the food chain? Start caring about ecology, about the environment, about how man has been anything but a part of nature and been shit-raping it. There is always a choice. The meat you eat was never a part of food chain to begin with. They were artificially bred. In gigantic numbers.
meat- eater--> The animal has no other purpose in life. It must be happy to have let a being of higher intelligence survive on it.
me--> No one asked you to decide that. You are not God. Just because you breed them doesn't give you the right to kill them. Lets kill you and offer you as a human sacrifice to one of those farcical Gods you find everywhere. I bet you should be happy about it as you, a lower being is being offer to a higher being- whether you acknowledge it or not (did the animal acknowledge your beliefs?).
It becomes a controversy because at the end of the day, my choice infringes on their ability to do what they want without thinking about the consequences of their actions on other life forms. They see me asking the waiter to avoid animal products and they know that I think what they're doing is wrong. They're not passionate about the topic, but they'll argue it as rabidly as I do. It's not because their opinion is terribly important to them in general. They argue so forcefully because to lose the argument is to lack compassion and acknowledge the wrongness in creating suffering of others. So, they make a joke of the vegan lifestyle, most of the time not because they think it's silly, but because it has to be proven silly so that they will be seen as the 'good people with the right choices'.
Some quotes by some vegetarians and philosophers-
http://litvegan.tumblr.com/
Bottom-line, I have no qualms if you are a meat-eater as long as you don't pester me or other vegetarians like me about my choice. For us it was the most natural choice. If you do, the jovial and superior nose on you will be ripped off and thrown to the gutters.
Bottom-line, I have no qualms if you are a meat-eater as long as you don't pester me or other vegetarians like me about my choice. For us it was the most natural choice. If you do, the jovial and superior nose on you will be ripped off and thrown to the gutters.
