dcseain: Cast shot of me playing my violin in role of minstrel in the Two Gentlemen of Verona (Default)
dcseain ([personal profile] dcseain) wrote2006-08-08 11:03 pm
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On Vegans

Reply to this post saying “pick me” or something similar. I'll pick one of your interests, and then you must tell me a a lot about it. Then I (and the other readers here) will learn a bit more about you and your interests.

[livejournal.com profile] muzikmaker21 picked Vegans from my interest list:
Vegans

(not veganism, but vegans)
I met my first vegetarian when i started high school. I knew they existed, especially among adherents of Hinduism, but i'd net met one. The first vegans i became aware of were my cousin Katherine and her hubby, Ottmar. I remember going to the Rini-Rego Stop-N-Shop with my grandfather in 1986, and showing him that cooking vegan was not hard, it just meant he had to read ingredient lists more carefully.

I met [livejournal.com profile] nadyalec my first year of high school, which started late that same summer. She and her sister, L, were vegetarians when i met them. L became a vegan not too long after i'd gotten to know them. But anyway, L was the first vegan i really knew, and i hung with a largely veggie crowd. L did it for mostly animal rights reasons. For that matter, aside from [livejournal.com profile] agentxs, who is vegan for health reasons, all the vegans i have known are vegans for animal rights reasons, and that plays a significant role for [livejournal.com profile] agentxs, too, form my understanding, though it was not his initial impetus for the dietary lifestyle.

Part of my interest in vegans, is that i'm too lazy to be one; what's life without yogurt, and butter, and cheese, and heavy cream. I eat those despite my lactose intolerance. The effort of maintaining veganism is just not worth it to me, though i eat, and cook, vegan often.

I have no animal rights component in my vegetarianism, ovo-lacto variety, or at best no more than your average Hindu. Most vegans i've met have a strong animal-rights bent. My family is fairly crunchy on both sides, so i understand the concept of animal rights, and having spent many a school break on a small, family-run, dairy farm, i saw, and learned, first-hand, how to properly treat animals. I learned first-hand, how to kill a chicken and a fish with minimal cruelty, and according to kashruth.

I've experienced funny looks from strangers as my sister and i scold her young children when they go to chase animals who are minding their own business; one must respect the natural world, of which we are a part. Just because they let their children terrorize the pigeons and squirrels does not mean we need to teach our children to be such disrespectful hellions. *steps down from soapbox*

So, in summary, my interest in vegans is fundamentally all about why they've chosen to be vegan, as i am too lazy to do so myself, in part because it makes dining out rather a pain in the ass.
ext_31455: (Default)

hedonism.

[identity profile] papertigers.livejournal.com 2006-08-09 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
my introduction to hedonism happened in high school, in an elective social studies class (the history of political thought). among other things, we read excerpts of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Utilitarianism, which i've since read in their entirety multiple times. i'm a huge JSM fan for multiple reasons, but initially it was for love of his distinguishing between negative and positive liberty and his belief that actions are judged moral in proportion to how much happiness they produce in society as a whole. these were all radical ideas for a 16 year-old who'd been raised Baptist by a former Roman Catholic, but they made more instinctive sense to me than anything i'd heard in a sermon or read in the Bible. the fact that JSM was writing as a Christian made his ideas even more compelling, for all they contradicted most of what i'd been taught about the nature of God and the world in Bible school.

i should clarify that i'm an altruistic hedonist; i have a hedonistic appreciation for sensual pleasures, but i see pursuit of spiritual and intellectual pleasures as essential to a good life and to full enjoyment of the sensual as well. for all my introversion, my moral compass is collectivist, not individualist, so i see my purpose as increasing the amount of goodness in my community, not just in my life.

Re: hedonism.

[identity profile] debboamerik.livejournal.com 2006-08-09 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
And, speaking as a Christian, I will say that enjoyment is a big part of the point. One of the things my parents really loved to say when I was a kid was, "Why did God make you? Because he thought you'd like it." I think increasing the good in the community is enjoyable for a reason; it's supposed to be, and that's part of the plan. If you don't do it with joy and a whole heart, don't do it at all, because you're probably doing more harm than good.

Re: hedonism.

[identity profile] selki.livejournal.com 2006-08-09 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I also like JSM because of his defense of free speech, and his support of women's rights.