Will There Ever Be a Vegan World?
"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."
-John Lennon
The End
There are very few things in this world in which I have complete and total faith, but the one thing I know for sure - without a doubt in my mind - is that the world will be vegan. I'm just hoping I'll live to see it. The only thing I don't know is exactly how or why this will happen. What will this future look like? Will it be largely the same or will there be massive changes in order to achieve this? Will it happen naturally or will there be a cognizant push towards veganism? I'm incredibly curious and excited to see a future of absolute animal liberation.
Plant-Based, Maybe Vegan?
I should rephrase my first statement. I don't know if the world will ever be vegan, but it will definitely be plant-based. There will no longer be any need to eat animals (not that there is a legitimate need today). And once we stop eating them, why would we wear them or use them for other reasons? Every other excuse we use now would seem superfluous, unnecessary to our happiness.
Will We Eliminate Animal Abuse?
No, but the total elimination of undesirable practices will never truly cease. Though we may have "ended" slavery, there are still active and profitable slave trades across the world. However, like slavery, the usage of animals will be illegal and taboo, meaning that the vast majority of people will no longer be interested in participating in those acts. Good always prevails in the end, even if it takes millennia. (After thousands of years, how amazing would it be to be alive at the moment when humans stopped eating animals? We are making history like nothing we've ever seen before! It truly is a great time to be alive.)
What Will Be the Catalyst for Change?
Unfortunately, I don't believe there will be some great awakening of compassion within the majority of humanity. Though reading The World Peace Diet by Dr. Will Tuttle did give me hope and allowed me to fantasize about the beautiful and compassionate utopia-like world we could have if that did happen. Our greatest strength to ignite change most likely lies in promoting the amazing benefits of a healthy vegan diet, as well as offering delicious food alternatives to animal products. Like I said in "A Guide to Vegan Education & Activism," humans are pretty selfish creatures, so we care more about benefiting our own health over the health of the planet or its other nonhuman inhabitants and our palate preferences over the interest of an animal to live instead.
People will not suddenly "wake up" to the realization of the horrors of factory farming. It will likely just become more and more common for people to eat plant-based foods, and as they do that and undoubtedly beneficially impact their health, they will do so more and more. Eventually, they'll wonder why they never ate plant foods to begin with, and the animal agriculture industry will simply convert to plants (which, if you follow current events, is already happening - the future is now, people).
In this scenario, I don't think people will truly understand the implications of their diet, just as they don't now. When I think of society as it is now, I think of 1984 because of the very real parallels to today's society. We work; follow the rules; don't question things we should question and are struck down when we do; and we act, eat, and live a certain way because that's what we're supposed to do. Except the real Big Brother is the animal agriculture industry, shoveling their lies down our throats like foie gras geese. This future likely will be similar to the present in most ways, except we will be eating plants instead of animals. There will still be many other issues in the world, but hopefully animals won't be involved in our battles.
The Other Path...
Another option, one that I certainly hope doesn't occur but I fear will, is that we will be forced to switch to a plant-based lifestyle because of some environmental calamity. From our cozy homes and cushy lives now, it seems preposterous - impossible, even - to imagine anything like an environmental catastrophe (or several) destroying the planet as we know it. And when we shout at people that we only have until 2030 to save the planet from this fate, something so soon, we lose credibility with the doubters. So they continue their destructive habits, completely unaware (or willfully ignorant) to the truth they can't see.
There are so many apocalyptic movies out now, but do we ever wonder why that is? Horror movies are designed to feed on the very real fears we feel today. Death, grief, loneliness, change, pain, the unknown. It's what makes you lie in bed at night thinking, I know it's not real...but what if? Or, This couldn't possibly happen to me...but what if? In this case, that fear is environmental destruction and the possibility that we may be forced to survive, not just live. While these are all fictional, it points to the terror we all feel of losing our security. With how slow we are as a society to enact change, I worry for the future of all beings on this planet; for at the rate we're going, we will begin to see great climate changes, harbingers of the harrowing fate we've constructed for our planet and the longevity of our species.
The Ideal Option
Obviously, my greatest hope is that neither of those previous options will occur. I dream of a day when humans respect nonhumans and we all walk the planet carefully and kindly. That there will be some great awakening of the human soul to the plight of animals. I wish for a future of overflowing peace and light and beauty and life. Without violence or hatred or darkness. Where we celebrate the miraculous treasure it is to be alive. Though that seems far out of reach, and though I don't often feel this way about most things, I do believe that humans are capable of achieving this. We hold so much power in our ability to love and empathize with the world around us. All we need to do is act with our hearts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12R4FzIhdoQ
be conscious, be kind, be vegan