Member-only story
Does Veganism Have to Be Radical?
The stereotype of a vegan is someone who doesn’t wear deodorant, practices yoga, and eats cold raw vegetables. They’ve given up worldly pleasures in order to live a sterile lifestyle full of seitan and overnight oats. That is certainly how I always thought of vegans; they seemed so disciplined and extreme.
I came across the vegan lifestyle as many do: I fell in love with a dog and learned that livestock such as cows and pigs are just as intelligent and sentient as dogs. What does one do with this information? In my case, a period of denial was followed by a documentary or two and the realization that, yes, abstaining from these meats makes sense. Cheese and fish were consumed until other documentaries proved that there is just as much cruelty in these industries as in the meat industry. Inconvenient truths, to be sure.
As I’ve embarked on my own journey towards veganism in recent years, I’ve come to see veganism as more of a philosophy than a destination. The vegan philosophy is this: animals are complex living organisms with intrinsic worth and we should minimize the harm we do to them. Not because we have to, not because we should, but because we can. Because we have the privilege of sharing this earth with so many other creatures who are also simply trying to live.
