Veganism, zero-waste, esoteric, politics ... No matter what subject we're talking about, I feel like people are getting less and less tolerant - and unfortunatelly I see this on my side as well. But is it actually even possible not to be "extreme" in these subjects?
Imagine people chained in a cave. There is an exit from the cave and an enterance to the real world, right behind their back. But they only see the shadows on the wall in front of them. They became their own reality. They'll live in the cave their whole life, never seeing what's happening behind their back. One day, one of the prisoners escape and suddenly he sees that all he'd believed in until this moments was an illusion. He comes back to the cave for his friends and tried to convince them to get out with him - to the real world. But the other prisoners only see his shadow on the wall in front of them and hear his voice which turned into incomprehensible sounds ...
Plato's cave theory is one of the few things I remember from our philosophy classes at high school. I admit that I don't know for sure what this metaphor was originally supposed to mean ... and perhaps it has nothing to do with my feeling. But lately when I'm trying to explain something, I use this theory as an example. When you become interested in something (no matter if it's veganism and the living conditions of factory farm animals, no matter if it's plastic pollution, politics or scholar system problems ...), once you start getting deeper and deeper in that subject, you're collecting information, arguments and you feel like you're doing the right things while other people don't care about this topic at all ... it's really hard to find mutual understanding. For example, I usually try not to talk about vegetarianism/veganism with people if they don't ask me about it. But even though I try to avoid it, I sometimes get "too much" into this subject and I become hysterical, annoying and judging in some way. Even though I don't want to be like this at all.
I don't think I'm better than anyone. I don't think that I always make good decisions in life - not at all. I make a lot of mistakes - towards myself, towards other people and even towards my own beliefs. For sure I'm not 100% right in anything. I know that. But sometimes I get just too caught up in my own emotions and forget that other people can see the world in a bit (or a lot) different way.
It's hard. If you talk with someone about your religion or something abstract like this, you can't use any arguments. But it's different with these other subjects. Animals for meat are simply dying to be served as a meal and the food on our plate once used to be a living, breathing, thinking creature who used to feel emotions and pain just like we do. That's a fact. Plastic straws, cups and bags release dangerous toxines into our bodies and the tiny plastic particles end up in oceans and stomachs of marine animals. Fact. Reality. I don't want to talk more about politics, but in general, it's the same again. If you're interested in politics and you watch the people promising things and never fulfulling them, changing their "truth" all the time while people still support them and vote them ... It's really really hard not to get into fights about it. To tolerate and understand each other.
There's a horrible feeling of powerlessness. You know you can't save the world and you know some things will basically never change. So at least, you try to "inspire" people around you. But everyone has their own point of view - nobody's opinion is worse or better. Everyone just thinks differently. For some people, it's more imporant to fully enjoy their personal life without any worries about the outer world. They don't care if they buy salad in a plastic packaging or go to the other part to the city to the farmer's market. They don't care if they buy twice more expensive vegan chocolate or the cheap dairy chocolate that's currently in sale ...
And honestly, sometimes it's really sucks. And I feel like I should forget about everything and just live.
I think how easy it would be if I could close my eyes and pretend like none of these things exist. But I can't. I feel liek I would go against myself. It's not about following any idea, any opinion .. it's not about the idea itself. It's about emotions. Since our family got a dog, I'm not able to make a difference between animals - and I can't not see where every single pice of meat came from. When I see all the plastic packages in supermarkets, I see nature, destroyed by piles of garbage ... and so on and so on.
I feel sorry and sad about all of this stuff and sometimes I get angry about other people ignoring these facts, that I can be really annoying while trying to "explain" and justify my point of view.
Basically, neither the person on one side, nor the person on the other side is an "extremist". The only extreme thing in this case, if the intolerance and the zero effort to understand, how the other person sees the situation. I'll stick to veganism, because it's the simplest example - Imagine a person who's been eating meat their whole life and they feel like it's an imporant part of their daily diet. Probably they won't be super happy when someone starts telling him that he's a murderer and an ignorant. On the other hand, he should also try to understand a person, who sees all the dead animals and the conditions they used to live in, every time he enters a supermarket ...
Imagine people chained in a cave. There is an exit from the cave and an enterance to the real world, right behind their back. But they only see the shadows on the wall in front of them. They became their own reality. They'll live in the cave their whole life, never seeing what's happening behind their back. One day, one of the prisoners escape and suddenly he sees that all he'd believed in until this moments was an illusion. He comes back to the cave for his friends and tried to convince them to get out with him - to the real world. But the other prisoners only see his shadow on the wall in front of them and hear his voice which turned into incomprehensible sounds ...
Plato's cave theory is one of the few things I remember from our philosophy classes at high school. I admit that I don't know for sure what this metaphor was originally supposed to mean ... and perhaps it has nothing to do with my feeling. But lately when I'm trying to explain something, I use this theory as an example. When you become interested in something (no matter if it's veganism and the living conditions of factory farm animals, no matter if it's plastic pollution, politics or scholar system problems ...), once you start getting deeper and deeper in that subject, you're collecting information, arguments and you feel like you're doing the right things while other people don't care about this topic at all ... it's really hard to find mutual understanding. For example, I usually try not to talk about vegetarianism/veganism with people if they don't ask me about it. But even though I try to avoid it, I sometimes get "too much" into this subject and I become hysterical, annoying and judging in some way. Even though I don't want to be like this at all.
I don't think I'm better than anyone. I don't think that I always make good decisions in life - not at all. I make a lot of mistakes - towards myself, towards other people and even towards my own beliefs. For sure I'm not 100% right in anything. I know that. But sometimes I get just too caught up in my own emotions and forget that other people can see the world in a bit (or a lot) different way.
It's hard. If you talk with someone about your religion or something abstract like this, you can't use any arguments. But it's different with these other subjects. Animals for meat are simply dying to be served as a meal and the food on our plate once used to be a living, breathing, thinking creature who used to feel emotions and pain just like we do. That's a fact. Plastic straws, cups and bags release dangerous toxines into our bodies and the tiny plastic particles end up in oceans and stomachs of marine animals. Fact. Reality. I don't want to talk more about politics, but in general, it's the same again. If you're interested in politics and you watch the people promising things and never fulfulling them, changing their "truth" all the time while people still support them and vote them ... It's really really hard not to get into fights about it. To tolerate and understand each other.
There's a horrible feeling of powerlessness. You know you can't save the world and you know some things will basically never change. So at least, you try to "inspire" people around you. But everyone has their own point of view - nobody's opinion is worse or better. Everyone just thinks differently. For some people, it's more imporant to fully enjoy their personal life without any worries about the outer world. They don't care if they buy salad in a plastic packaging or go to the other part to the city to the farmer's market. They don't care if they buy twice more expensive vegan chocolate or the cheap dairy chocolate that's currently in sale ...
And honestly, sometimes it's really sucks. And I feel like I should forget about everything and just live.
I think how easy it would be if I could close my eyes and pretend like none of these things exist. But I can't. I feel liek I would go against myself. It's not about following any idea, any opinion .. it's not about the idea itself. It's about emotions. Since our family got a dog, I'm not able to make a difference between animals - and I can't not see where every single pice of meat came from. When I see all the plastic packages in supermarkets, I see nature, destroyed by piles of garbage ... and so on and so on.
I feel sorry and sad about all of this stuff and sometimes I get angry about other people ignoring these facts, that I can be really annoying while trying to "explain" and justify my point of view.
Basically, neither the person on one side, nor the person on the other side is an "extremist". The only extreme thing in this case, if the intolerance and the zero effort to understand, how the other person sees the situation. I'll stick to veganism, because it's the simplest example - Imagine a person who's been eating meat their whole life and they feel like it's an imporant part of their daily diet. Probably they won't be super happy when someone starts telling him that he's a murderer and an ignorant. On the other hand, he should also try to understand a person, who sees all the dead animals and the conditions they used to live in, every time he enters a supermarket ...
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