I am a vegetarian and it wasn’t easy for me to be so.
I was born in the French countryside where the speciality is “rillette”, a sort of pig pâté and I adored meat in its many gruesome presentations: blood sausage, French sausage we call “andouillette”, steak tartare, tripe, cow’s tongue, pig’s foot…
I haven’t tasted haggis but I’m quite sure I would have loved it.
And then I finally succeeded in becoming a vegetarian, a diet that was more conform to my convictions.
As is logical, I don’t wear anything done with leather, either.
But I’ve not become a militant on the subject and respect others’ right to eat meat. First and foremost my kids’ right to enjoy a hamburger. Being vegetarian was my choice, not theirs.
I still wish, though, for the most dignified life possible for farm animals and for them to have the most respectful death possible, if this isn’t too much of a contradiction. And I cry each time I see a truck obviously heading for the slaughterhouse.
I am irritated by meat lover who can’t seem to bear a contradiction to their taste. Most often because they find the stirrings of their conscience uncomfortable.
But I’m mightily annoyed by any vegetarian (still eating dairy products and eggs) or vegan (none of the above, not even honey) extremism when it doesn’t make the effort to understand another opinion and threatens people’s life or livelihood.
And I’m convinced that each of us should fight the fanatics of our own faction.
Because they discredit our beliefs.
And the lack of respect for others’ and their opinion is one of the main traits of a manipulator.
When expressed in religious or political extremism, it can be an excellent way to grab power. Easy concepts are, by definition, easy to grasp and can generate mob inducing emotions. Anger and revolt are easier to obtain in someone else than hope.
And the great advantage of fanaticism, of dogma, is that it is without nuances or compromise and gives to the manipulator, an absolute power, the weapon of politically correctness, and the mask of a perverted perfection.