Okay, I’ll admit it. I had my first major hurdle to overcome since I started the blog- used the holidays as an excuse to take a day off and a day turned into two and so on. For the past few days, I’ve been wrestling with another vegan world issue that reminds me again of my Christian days and why I started this endeavor.
To see or not to see War Horse- that’s my dilemma. My first reaction after seeing the trailer was hell no!… here we go again. Another movie that abuses animals and all this in the wake of the New York carriage horse collapses, and… You get the point. The vegan/animal rights community I’ve gravitated to since converting about a year ago tells me not to see this movie because real live horses were used in the production and the use of animals for this any purpose that serves the selfish needs of mankind is wrong. And if I see the movie, I’m in a sense casting my financial vote for the perpetuation of animal use/abuse in the film industry.
I get that line of reasoning, but I also have to confess that there’s a part of me that rebels against the one size fits all mentality that quite frankly can be a little constraining to me at times. Especially since I’m still in the process of figuring out where I fit into all of this. Back in the day, I used to listen to this Christian family-friendly movie review guy’s radio show. He had the enviable task of seeing every movie out there with notepad in hand- counting swear words, drug and alcohol references, nude scenes, and any other non-christian elements that struck a dissonant chord with a prim and proper world view.
So I’m listening to a podcast the other day that reminded me of the family values douche bag. This guy reviewing War Horse had somehow obtained a free ticket to a premiere and thus could attend guilt free. He went on to essentially promote the film to the vegan community with the caveat that one should only see the film if like him they could attend for free because the positive animal rights messages don’t outweigh the negative impact your ten bucks is going to make. Really? Is Steven Spielberg seriously going to base his next film making decision on whether or not a few thousand vegan animal rights activist see this movie? Is my money going to perpetuate animal cruelty in the film industry? In principle, yes. In reality, no. A presidential vote cast in a fixed system has more weight I think.
I for one am willing to sacrifice my vegan purity to see a film that I know will move me (like the non-vegan masses) to give more of a shit about the treatment of animals past, present, and future.
This is a tough area we haven’t yet considered. It comes down to ” how radical are we willing to go?”. And is it really “radical” to draw a clear line? What is your definition of vegan? Mine goes beyond what I eat and wear. I don’t believe it is morally acceptable to use animals in ANY way. Because we, as a species, have always enslaved other species, it looks natural and even beautiful to see someone riding a horse. I rode horses, owned horses, watched dressage on T.V., and now I have to change my thinking on that. In a perfect world we would have never enslaved (domesticated) other species, ever. So our history would look a lot different. When I watch one of my favorite movies, Sense and Sensibility, instead of everyone riding around on horses and in carriages, they would be walking or using some other invention we would’ve come up with, like a peddle powered carriage! We are very creative, we never NEEDED to use animals, and we especially don’t now. So, should I stop watching my favorite movies that we already own that use animals in them? I don’t know, maybe they continue to desensitize me in that particular area of animal use. I hope though, that I won’t contribute any further money towards that industry. All we can do is move forward, however hopeless it may seem, we must continue to evolve. Others will follow, and that is how change is made.
I think that it’s interesting that you talk about your past “Christian days” and also “converting” to veganism as well as “vegan purity.” Very interesting.
I am not sure whether the “vegan/animal rights community I’ve gravitated to” is a specific group or just a statement about having joined the broad community of vegans. Regardless, it sounds as if you have been told, in some way, that you must approach veganism and animal rights with the same type of restrictive, collective dogma that you were prepped in with Christianity. And now you you may be struggling with that the same way you may have struggled with Christian dogma. (?)
I am not a member of any animal rights group nor subscribe to the specific values of any vegan group. I don’t have “rules,” only important, informed guidelines for making decisions I consider consistent with the rights of animals and my current abilities to do best by that.