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There is No Going Back to Being Ignorant of Animal Products Once You Are Aware

March 26, 2024

Loving Awareness Above Cage MentalityRevelations and growth that happen when you expand your awareness are often expressed by saying "I could never go back to the way I used to be." That's a characteristic of choosing a plant based diet through spiritual and ethical awareness. The mentality required to go back to buying overt animal products would be uncomfortable and disturbing.

From an Agreegan Perspective, this doesn't mean you go vegan. It means you understand why avoiding animal products is so incredibly important for modern day consumers. Overt animal products have become disturbing and a symbol of ignorance and callousness in the 21st century. It's no longer possible to have the ignorance is bliss experience of eating delicious tasting food that requires ethical and spiritual atrocities to acquire. Bird Breaking Free from a mental CageIt may be possible to eat a slice of cake that has eggs and butter in it, that you didn't pay for, because it's not overt animal abuse, and may have social or communal cost of rejecting it. But once you're aware of the full cost of animal products, ethically, environmentally, and spiritually, you can't go back to being someone who ignorantly sponsors that level of suffering for other sentient being we share the Earth with without feeling disturbed or unhappy about it to some degree.

Someone who is not plant-based can relate to that concept in other ways. For example most people in modern society would not own a slave, even if it was legal. It's disturbing to think about because of the shared ethical value that humans are born free. Yet it was not that long ago that slave owners lived amongst us, promoting their slave owning lifestyle and slave made products. Most people simply couldn't go backwards to that mentality, even if owning slaves or buying slave labor products benefited them financially. It requires a lower level of awareness and ethical value system to own a person, or not feel disturbed by the suffering slavery requires.

"The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Caged AnimalsAnimals also deserve freedom, family and basic dignity. It's disturbing to be in the presence of people who are unaware of the effects of buying animal products, in a similar way it's disturbing to hang out with a racist, a thief or someone who owns slaves.

Someone who ignores the suffering of animals and finds joy in animal products from factory farms is a speciesist. The more specific definition of a speciesist is someone who discriminates based on species. For example, someone who believes paying money that causes the mass suffering of pigs and cows can be ignored, but paying money to cause human suffering is outrageous and should be boycotted.

Bird Free from CageAgreegans agree that paying money to cause human suffering should be boycotted. That's a shared human value that humanity has grown to accept over the centuries. Agreegans and vegans extend the same value system to other species and sentient beings we can relate to. Some people may see that as a sacrifice or a loss, but once you understand it, it's an honor and a strength to live by a value system that is consistent and does not require a mental cage, or ignorance to function. The good news is is a plant-based diet is superior, and leads to a higher quality of live overall. Especially when you take into account that if you are ignorant and buy animal products, those who have grown past that mentality are disturbed by the suffering your ignorance causes other sentient beings. But when you are aware, those who have higher awareness can relate to you. Your life gets better in hard to describe ways. The most important one is that you grow as a person in such a way, you can't go back to the way you once were.

One of my goals is to capture how life gets better when you switch your diet to plant-based preferably consisting mainly of whole foods. I want to express it to those who eat animal products, as clearly as possible because I want them to have the benefits too. I want to live in a world where people are aware, compassionate and respect sentient beings of all species to be free from human exploitation.

Animal ProtectorHearing famous people say things relatable and uplifting is a great way to reach those who's awareness is not large enough to include all sentient beings in their value system. Many people feel a resistance to expansion because it feels like work and change, but ultimately it's a better way of life, and has benefits that have not been experienced yet.

When you change something in your life for the better, it's hard to imagine going backwards to a way of living that requires ignorance to continue. That's expressed in the British Racecar Driver Lewis Hamilton in this video:

"Once you cross the line, once you go over the hill, [...] I can't imagine going back." -Lewis Hamilton

He is one among the 10 famous vegans in this video who express how much better their life is now that they are plant-based:

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