I Love You, America

I hate the way that people use the word "America" to mean everything they don't like.

No emoticon can begin capture my anger.

Except for this one:

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I mean no offense at America, the land. Even no offense at America, the people. What I take aim at is America, the status quo.

It has often been disconcerting to me that the symbols of America - especially the flag - are often missing from progressive political causes. It is always the conservative counter-protest that waves flags. The radicals burn them. Why? Wouldn't it make more sense for the radicals to claim that their ideals are more in line with those the country stands for, and that the status quo is made of usurpers who fail to hold its ideals? Hold the flag aloft for its principles of freedom?

The trouble is that actions speak much louder than ideals. And when the current government, the current populace, the current status quo acts in a manner you disapprove of, it's hard to ignore that and to instead equate America with the ideals it is supposed to have. It's easier to see what is than what should be.

In some ways, I don't think this is a bad thing. That way a double-speaking government that supports "freedom" (even as it increases surveilance and draconian controls on its population), supports "peace" (even as it spends more on war than anyone in a generation), supports "small government" (even as it spends us deeper into debt than we have ever been), doesn't get away with just talking, since people see the actions and react against them. But at the same time, there is the risk that in decrying America, a protester will alienate those for whom the notion of America does strike an emotional chord.

For me, eating steak cooked on the grill with my girlfriend in the kitchen was something that brought me closer than I had been in quite some time to the stereotypical American Man, and this is something that was uncomfortable to me, because of all the other negative associations I have with it. This, I think, is precisely the issue I have been grappling with - trying to break down my moral superiority complexes to look at veganism as it is, from the perspective of a non-vegan. To scrape away the dogma. To understand that the stereotypical American Man is no dumber or more immoral than I, and that he indeed has something to teach me. This is hard. It's uncomfortable. And my reaction in this case was sarcasm. Sorry, Clifton.

I have tried and failed to articulate this before. Now I will fail again. But I'll do it in an abraisive tough guy way.

There is nothing morally significant about veganism.

On a global scale, the urgency of animal rights, or agricultural efficiency has absolutely no relevance.

Here's a way to look at it that I disagree with, but bleeding hearts might shed a tear: How can anybody think that eating mushrooms instead of cheese grants them any moral high ground when so many people would fish either out of a trash can, and most animals would, too?

It's like people that think they should boycott shoes because sweatshops offend them. Since when did consumer choice become a primary forum for the assertion of morals?

It's only in places like America, where the profound luxury of 'steak for dinner! every night!' became commonplace, that people worry about the morality of their diet. Even the ability to worry about the health of one's diet is a luxury that few people indulge in.

Is it immoral for you to eat when others go hungry? NO! In fact, it is immoral to feed people just because they are hungry, because then all they learn is that hunger entitles them to food. That, at best leads to a life of disappointment.

So here we are. It's immoral to feed the hungry. How then, can it be moral to eat one food or another?

Buy any part of the above, or not. Here's the point:

There are real issues out there and veganism is not one of them.

Then tell me - what real issues are there, which you can have a personal, direct effect on?

Think hard about it. Something that you can actually change. I would guess that whatever it is, it will come down to one thing: how you act. You can control your own actions, not anyone else's. What can you do that has greater impact than what you consume?

(I get the sense that you've got a bone to pick, and you've picked this seldom visited venue with few ears but mine to pick it in. Remember - I started this blog to question veganism; impassioned rants about its worthlessness add little to the discussion. Tell me what is better than veganism, and I'll listen.)