Why Are There So Few Vegetarians?
psychologytoday.com
psychologytoday.com
I personally became vegetarian not because I changed my mind about the morality of eating meat, but because I started to actually try to be a good person.
It really is not easy, though. Try to go through your day, thinking about all of the impacts of things you do. Your car burning oil, your purchasing decisions enabling megacorporations to take over, your rent propping up a rich person, and so on.
Life just isn't possible if you try to 'do no evil'. So we make up reasons why things are OK, we get lazy, or we just don't think about it beyond the directly terrible acts.
For me, being vegetarian was something that required very little change in my life. You just pick up tofu or other substitutes and go on as usual. Much easier than say, abstaining from capitalism.
Shouldn't that indicate something about the validity of one's view of morality?
Imagine that you are born into a tribe that sacrifices children once annually. You have to do it, you can't get around it without suicide.
Your view on the 'evilness' of an activity you are effectively forced to perform is no more or less valid.
Well, how long must you have been one to actually count as one? If you last ate meat 12 months ago, are you a vegetarian today? Or does it have to be five years ago? Ten?
Depending on how we set this cutoff, we get more or fewer "vegetarians".
How about if we look into the future? If you're one week from relapsing into meat eating, are you a vegetarian today? What if you're five months away from downing a hot dog? Or how about five years away from enjoying a juicy, char-broiled steak?
By contrast, ~80% of my food intake right now is Soylent. I could make that 100% if I wanted, and I suppose that would qualify me as vegeterian; Soylent contains no animal byproducts. But I don't consider myself vegeterian and never will.
Edit: I tend to look at this like a religion. Can someone be Christian if they aren't in church every time the door is open? Do they have to follow every rule and think correctly and so forth 100% of the time? I think most people would say no.
New York strip? Prime rib? Bacon cheeseburgers? Portillo's Italian sausage with hot peppers? Yes please!
Chicken and fish can be amazing (I'm thinking about drumsticks and spicy tuna handrolls as I write this), even though it doesn't exactly count as meat in my mind.
I tried to be a vegetarian once when I was about 17. I had made it for the better part of a year, and then Thanksgiving rolled around. I managed to make it through dinner, but after dessert I saw a glistening leftover drumstick in the kitchen. Right then and there I decided to give up.
If you love eating meat as much as I do, there is little point in living a life of self-denial.
Food of the Gods - Arthur C Clarke
It’s only fair to warn you, Mr. Chairman, that much of my evidence will be highly nauseating; it involves aspects of human nature that are very seldom discussed in public, and certainly not before a congressional committee. But I am afraid that they have to be faced,; there are times when the veil of hypocrisy has to be ripped away, and this is one them. You and I, gentlemen, have descended from a long line of carnivores. I see from you expressions that most of you don’t recognize the term. Well, that’s not surprising-it comes from a language that has been obsolete for two thousand years. Perhaps I had better avoid euphemisms and be brutally frank, even if I have to use words that are never heard in polite society. I apologize in advance to anyone I may offend. Until a few centuries ago, the favorite food of almost all men was meat-the flesh of once living animals. I’m not trying to turn your stomachs; this is a simple statement of fact, which you can check in any history book… Why, certainly, Mr. Chairman, I’m quite prepared to wait until Senator Irving feels better. We professionals sometimes forget how laymen may react to statements like that. At the same time, I must warn the committee that there is very much worse to come. If any of you gentlemen are at all squeamish, I suggest you follow the senator before it’s to late… Well, if I may continue. Until modern times, all food fell into two categories. Most of it was produced from plants-cereals, fruits, plankton, algae and other forms of vegetation. It’s hard for us to realize that the vast majority of our ancestors were farmers, winning food from the land or sea by primitive and often back breaking techniques; but that is the truth. The second type of food, if I may return to this unpleasant subject, was meat, produced from a relatively small number of animals. You may be familiar with some of them-cows, pigs, sheep, whales. Most people-I am sorry to stress this, but the fact is beyond dispute-preferred meat to any other food, though only the wealthiest were able to indulge this appetite. To most of mankind, meat was a rare and occasional delicacy in a diet that was more than ninety-percent vegetable. [...]
Full text: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=hbAqAAAAQBAJ&lpg=PT75&o...
About: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_of_the_Gods_%28short_s...
Also, I'm afraid to say it is articles and opinions like this that make me instantly weary of people who identify as vegans. The holier-than-thou moral superiority that is obvious from reading that article is disgusting. So I like meat, that's how we were made. It's delicious and nutritious and nobody has any damn right to judge me for that, and if you insist on judging nonetheless, you are not worth my respect or attention.
Be a vegetarian or a vegan if you want, just don't rub it in my face and try to make me feel bad because I don't agree with your perceived moral superiority.