Veganism and Anarchism. Do these two ism’s go hand in hand? Can you be one but not the other?
Lets take a look at what these words really mean.
According to the Webster Dictionary, the word ‘vegan’ means “a strict vegetarian who consumes no food (such as meat, eggs, or dairy products) that comes from animals; also: one who abstains from using animal products (such as leather)”. While this may be correct, it goes a little deeper than that. Why is it that vegans don’t consume animal products?
For the sole reason being that they don’t believe they are superior over these animals.They believe that every sentient being has the right to live its life unobstructed.
Although the quick glance at the definition might not say that — if you study and analyze the history of veganism which dates back to the ancient times, you’ll see that this word holds a lot more meaning. One of the earliest accounts or possible glances at vegetarianism or veganism stems from what is considered to be the oldest religion in the world, Hinduism and their advocation of ahimsa, or non-violence and respect to all life forms. The term ‘vegan’ hadn’t been penned until 1944 so during the ancient times there wasn’t an umbrella term to use for these people living a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. But the Greeks did refer to it as “abstinence from beings with a soul”. One of my favorite proponents of this lifestyle, George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who was very influential from the 1880’s until his death, spoke often about animal rights and I think he explained the true essence of the word ‘vegan’ in this quote here:
"If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth -- beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals -- would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?"
As you can see from the Hindus, the Greeks, and even an Irish playwright, veganism all started from compassion and the desire for freedom for these animals. The belief that we are sharing this planet with other living beings and that as humans we don’t possess any kind of special authority or superiority to another living species.
In simple terms, the word ‘anarchy’ means the "absence of government”. One definition that the Webster dictionary uses is: “a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government”. And what is government? Its a system that was built in order to govern over a society or community. So anarchism is basically a rejection of a hierarchy. A rejection of rulers, masters or leaders. Freedom for the people of the society.
The first individual to refer to himself as an ‘anarchist’ was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who called himself this in What is Property?, published in 1840. Later on his account of what government was, he said this:
"To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue...That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."
The key words here are “by men who have neither right, nor the knowledge, or the virtue…” Why has it become such the norm to play follow the leader in our daily lives? The idea of a governed society is so ingrained in us that we stop questioning the morality of it. We instead are masked by this illusion of “land of the free” that is provided by our government. But are we really free? And weren’t we inherently free to begin with? Just like the animals?
So one of these words applies to animals. While the other applies to humans. But the fundamental reasoning of both is the same: freedom. Non-force. Non-aggression. Non-authority.
By growing up in public schooling, many of us are raised through an education process of regurgitation. We learn something in class, go home and study, then take a test to see if we are able to regurgitate it correctly. Through this process we learn to think in a very collective manner and our individuality slowly gets pushed to the back burner. This makes sense why it is so common to see people turning to various ‘trends’ or ‘groups’ — veganism, feminism, social media, new found bacon or avocado obsessions, activism, etc.
I’m not saying that any of these are necessarily right nor wrong, good nor bad. But many people flock to these because their collectivist mindset told them to do so. With that being said, you are bound to be faced with many conflicting ideologies and appear to be somewhat contradictory.
An example may be a strict ethical vegan protesting animal cruelty but the next weekend they are attending a community meeting in support of recruiting citizens to join the police or military. Protesting against violence one day and supporting it the next.
With all of this being said...
For those of you who are anarchists with the belief in rejection of a hierarchy, do you believe you are superior to animals and therefore can eat them or use products from them?
And for those of you who are vegan with the belief that you don’t have authority over animals so you therefore abstain from contributing to the exploitation of them, does this value of freedom only apply for animals or does it extend to human individuals as well?