[Hi all. I posted a version of the following last night in another thread but the thread has now been closed. I'd be interested to know what anyone thinks of my ideas. To anybody reading it again + bored again, SORRY!]
I think there is a danger with veganism in thinking that it's all about a 'big book of rules' to learn, to follow and most disastrously of all, to hit dissenters with, who don't 'toe the party line'. But what if there isn't really a 'party line'? What if Donald Watson and the Vegan Society (UK) have given us very little to go on, so we have to think for ourselves (Life of Brian anyone?) and create our own veganism?
I like it when Joanne Stepaniak says to vegans in her book Being Vegan "always try to do the least harm and the most good". Also "Each moment of our lives we have the option to do right, do wrong, or do nothing. Attempting to do right as often as we can is all that being vegan requires."
I believe that what Joanne Stepaniak says is correct and it makes more sense to me, than thinking we can have x number of 'vegan rules' to cover all the possible situations, that life can throw at us. A practical effect of this is that there will be some situations, where you do what you perceive to be 'the right thing' and I do what I perceive to be 'the right thing' and although our actions may be totally different, they can both be considered vegan. We may discuss our different actions and their relative merits but at the end of the day, we should respect each other and not just be interested in imposing our own viewpoint on the other person.
leedsveg
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