Ok, for the first time in a while, I have a more serious digression. I was listening to the radio in the car this morning. Talk radio. The topic was for people to call in with stories about previous jobs they had that were really gross. One guys calls in to talk about how he had to pick up bird droppings, another guy calls in about having to clean bathrooms, etc. Well, this one women calls in telling about a farm job she had. Baby chicks were hatched and she had to determine their sex. Why, you might ask? Well, she said that the female chicks would go on and lay eggs. The male chicks were useless and were suffocated (maybe turned into dogfood).

Changing the subject for a moment, I am vegetarian. Why? Well, when I was much younger, like junior high school age, I had this idealistic idea that death is bad PERIOD. Thus, eating meat was bad and evil because it was involved death. I was pretty close-minded about it. It was really black and white to me. There was no middle ground. I didn't consider issues like if the animal lived a happy life or felt pain when it died. I just saw it as killing is bad, death is bad, and everything else is ok. Of course, now I know that it's not that simple. In any case, I am still vegetarian and I don't intend to change that. But, I am more open-minded about it today. I don't think people who eat meat are evil, and I can understand arguments in favor of eating meat.

When I was about 18, I thought I should be vegan, i.e. not eat any animal products at all, no milk, no eggs, no pancakes, no pizza, no cheese, etc. This only lasted about a month. My reasoning for becoming vegan was that using animals was wrong too. I was told stories similar to the one about the chicks above. I was told that it was the same with dairy cows. I was told that the cows were impregnated so that they'd produce milk and then that their baby cows were taken away and turned into veal, while humans drank the milk. (Who knows if this is the truth or just propoganda. I've never lived on a farm.) Thus, even though drinking milk or eating eggs didn't directly involve killing, the killing was still there and so it would be hypocritical to be vegetarian but then still drink milk.

But it was too much trouble to be vegan. I couldn't eat pizza, I couldn't eat a lot of things. It was just too much trouble.

After hearing that thing on the radio about the baby chicks, it makes me think I should be vegan, that I should stop eating cheese, that I should no longer eat pancakes, or even pasta made from eggs.

But, unlike when I was much younger, the issue is not that simple. Over the last year or so, I have come to the conclusion that, for the most part, animals, including people, are selfish. They do what is best for them. Most people disagree with me on this. They say that people are altruistic, etc. Well, that's cuz people have feelings. They feel bad if their friend feels bad, so they are nice to their friend. But the person being nice is ultimately doing this because he cares about himself. I mean why should someone care more about their friend than some random person on the other side of the world? Because it affects him, because he really only cares about himself.

I have come to realize, that in this world, if you truly care more about everyone else, than about yourself, then you won't survive. While there are many things about this world that I'd like to change, I'd be lying to myself to think that I really care about everyone alive. Every day, people are starving, getting killed and I'm not doing a damn thing. When someone is in my car and I ask them to wear their seatbelt, do I do it because I really care about them, or because I'd feel really guilty if they died while I was driving. I mean if they are in someone else's car, I'm not going to say anything. You don't see me patrolling the streets making sure everyone is wearing their seatbelts.

So, now back to the chicks? Given that it's a selfish world we live in, why in the world should I care about these chicks or any other slaughtered animals? Animals are getting killed and tortured all the time, but so are people and I'm not doing anything about it. It doesn't affect me. Maybe I don't really care about animals. Maybe I care about myself and somehow I feel better thinking that I am not contributing the death and torture of animals.

Anyway, realistically, what are the chances that my not eating meat will have a signficant affect on this world. Let's assume that my not eating meat leads to 10 less animals being slaughtered. Well, there are still a billion others that do get slaughtered. We're all going to die in the end anyway. Am I really making any difference by not eating meat? Of course, if everyone would stop eating meat, that would be another story, but the reality is that most people don't care at all about the fate of animals. But, for some reason I do. It's not logical. I try to be logical and I can't give a reason why I seem to care more about some animal that I never interact with than with many people. Maybe I feel like animals are more helpless or something.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts on this, send me an email.