Overcast morning. The worker crew is here in full force. I’m sitting at the “book desk” in the living room, as the crew had started on scraping the sunroom windows when I wanted to start my morning routine.
Yesterday: long-ish conversation with Ax. about his veganism, which he said is a kind of religion for him. I remarked that it’s odd, because he has gone out of his way to mock religion as fairytale nonsense. So I tried to probe a bit about what his guiding principle(s) is (are), and whence it (they) derive(s).
What or who is the “authority”?
He couldn’t say.
It seems to be a moral imperative about not harming other sentient creatures, but what about himself? Is “survival” the only matrix? If, say, he wanted to go to Mongolia, would he really refuse the offered meal(s), which are such a huge part of a country’s culture (and which in Mongolia would surely not be vegan), and insist on veganism, thereby missing out on a crucial aspect of all that makes up “Mongolia”?
Yes, he would.
Then why bother going to Mongolia in the first place?
No adequate answer.
He would only eat animal products if the clear alternative was imminent starvation. So, it’s only utility, and not all the other things (e.g., culture, including culinary culture, cuisine) that determine his life experience(s)?
Sort of.
Seems crazy to me, one-dimensional. Later, I wondered how he feels about his own embodiment. There’s so much concern about the suffering of other sentient beings, but how does he approach his own embodiment? I wonder whether he takes it very seriously (the youth bonus… ah, to have the youth bonus again). There seems scant concern about sensibility to his own needs, etc.
I said at one point that I don’t hold animals as sacred, but I do hold food and meals as sacred. Hence, I don’t have the same qualms about taking an animal’s life to make a meal of it, to prepare it as food.