Empaths vs. Sociopaths, or, “Why Are You Still Eating Meat?”
October happens to be World Vegetarian Month as well as when I became vegan (many years ago!). With that as a background, I’ve used the first four Wednesdays this month to introduce myself and give a broad overview of why I’m creating this column. This week, a bit more detail in how VegCurious? Ask a Vegan! came to be.
The Peaceable Kingdom
I’ve spent a lot of time this year reading, re-reading, and researching the vegan and animal rights movements’ literature for my own edification. While doing so, a friend shared an article they had written with a similar theme, although their essay took on a different tone and concluded that empathy will only take you (us) so far. And I don’t disagree with them.
In The Sociopath Next Door (Martha Stout, 2005), the author makes the bold claim that four percent of “ordinary Americans”—one out of every 25 people—qualify as sociopaths, meaning that they can do anything they wish without feeling guilty. If Stout is correct, I propose that there would be a similar number of empaths—a person who feels another’s emotions as if they are their own. Think of these two as the opposite ends of a bell curve. If I am correct, the percentage of empaths is roughly equal to the percentage of vegans and vegetarians—four percent.
The indisputable benefits of a plant-based diet and lifestyle will take root when the people in the middle are reached.
This leaves 92 percent of people in the middle. My friend’s essay was written for this middle ground of the population but without the usual vegan advocate’s M.O. of reason or showing videos such as Earthlings, Why?Because these approaches generally work only for empaths—who most likely have already been reached. Instead, it takes the position that it is the meat eater who should have to defend their continued consumption of animals. In other words, instead of asking those of us who are already vegan why we are, we should be asking meat-eaters why they are still consuming animal products.
This is not a totally new idea, by the way. A half-century ago in “The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism” (Canadian Journal of Philosophy, October 1975), Prof. Tom Regan, the father of the modern animal rights movement, wrote:
Prof. Tom Regan, Ph.D. (1938–2017)
It is on these grounds that the [vegan] can base at least part of his moral opposition to eating meat. First, he can point out that the onus of justification is always on anyone who supports a practice that is known to inflict … undeserved pain on a sentient creature to show that, in doing so, he is not doing anything wrong. And he can point out, furthermore, that the onus of justification is always on those who support a practice that causes a sentient creature … undeserved pain to show that, in doing so, the sentient creature’s right to be spared this pain is not being violated. (Italics mine)
If my friend is correct, and they are certainly in good company, this could explain why the number of veg*ns never seems to grow beyond a low single-digit percent and why for every vegan today there are as many as five “used to be vegans.” Empathy only gets you (us) so far. It’s time to MMED: Make the Meat Eater Defensive.
How do you reach the large majority in the middle with this critical message? My essayist friend believes it is by direct confrontation, by speaking the truth and never backing down. In short, by challenging others for their selfish behavior (eating meat is, after all, completely unnecessary, only a fleeting pleasure [most people can’t remember what they ate yesterday], and hugely detrimental to the environment) in much the same way as smokers have been shamed over the last 30 years, with measurable success. You’ll probably never reach the sociopaths, but you should be able to convince some of the 90+ percent in the middle that it is in everyone’s best interest to eat lower on the food chain.
This column, then, is my endeavor to reach the mainstream; to challenge you to educate yourself (with me as your expert guide) about the unsustainable realities of an unnecessary diet. To help you understand that your own health, and the planet’s future, will both benefit greatly when you reduce or eliminate the amount of animal products you eat. And that by not doing so you are, once informed, complicit in sharing the burden of the consequences if we don’t collectively change our course, and soon. 🌱
Empaths vs. Sociopaths, or, “Why Are You Still Eating Meat?”
October happens to be World Vegetarian Month as well as when I became vegan (many years ago!). With that as a background, I’ve used the first four Wednesdays this month to introduce myself and give a broad overview of why I’m creating this column. This week, a bit more detail in how VegCurious? Ask a Vegan! came to be.
I’ve spent a lot of time this year reading, re-reading, and researching the vegan and animal rights movements’ literature for my own edification. While doing so, a friend shared an article they had written with a similar theme, although their essay took on a different tone and concluded that empathy will only take you (us) so far. And I don’t disagree with them.
In The Sociopath Next Door (Martha Stout, 2005), the author makes the bold claim that four percent of “ordinary Americans”—one out of every 25 people—qualify as sociopaths, meaning that they can do anything they wish without feeling guilty. If Stout is correct, I propose that there would be a similar number of empaths—a person who feels another’s emotions as if they are their own. Think of these two as the opposite ends of a bell curve. If I am correct, the percentage of empaths is roughly equal to the percentage of vegans and vegetarians—four percent.
This leaves 92 percent of people in the middle. My friend’s essay was written for this middle ground of the population but without the usual vegan advocate’s M.O. of reason or showing videos such as Earthlings, Why? Because these approaches generally work only for empaths—who most likely have already been reached. Instead, it takes the position that it is the meat eater who should have to defend their continued consumption of animals. In other words, instead of asking those of us who are already vegan why we are, we should be asking meat-eaters why they are still consuming animal products.
This is not a totally new idea, by the way. A half-century ago in “The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism” (Canadian Journal of Philosophy, October 1975), Prof. Tom Regan, the father of the modern animal rights movement, wrote:
If my friend is correct, and they are certainly in good company, this could explain why the number of veg*ns never seems to grow beyond a low single-digit percent and why for every vegan today there are as many as five “used to be vegans.” Empathy only gets you (us) so far. It’s time to MMED: Make the Meat Eater Defensive.
How do you reach the large majority in the middle with this critical message? My essayist friend believes it is by direct confrontation, by speaking the truth and never backing down. In short, by challenging others for their selfish behavior (eating meat is, after all, completely unnecessary, only a fleeting pleasure [most people can’t remember what they ate yesterday], and hugely detrimental to the environment) in much the same way as smokers have been shamed over the last 30 years, with measurable success. You’ll probably never reach the sociopaths, but you should be able to convince some of the 90+ percent in the middle that it is in everyone’s best interest to eat lower on the food chain.
This column, then, is my endeavor to reach the mainstream; to challenge you to educate yourself (with me as your expert guide) about the unsustainable realities of an unnecessary diet. To help you understand that your own health, and the planet’s future, will both benefit greatly when you reduce or eliminate the amount of animal products you eat. And that by not doing so you are, once informed, complicit in sharing the burden of the consequences if we don’t collectively change our course, and soon. 🌱
MORE FROM JOE
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