Vegans - What They Feel About Us... And Don't Feel For Others
>> Friday, October 14, 2011
"Pushy, nosy, hostile, aggressive, in-your-face, sanctimonious, uppity, opinionated, judgmental, rude, obnoxious, busy-body vegans! Why can't they just mind their own business!?!"
That's what many people say... But surely they haven't placed themselves in the skin of others. And if they did - I'm wondering then how would they feel?
It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.
~Harriet Beecher Stowe
4 comments :
Ms. Stowe summarizes it beautifully. Choosing whether to resist the bullies or to join in with them is the pivotal decision.
I don't need to watch what I'm sure is a heart-breaking video to know that I take the side of the pitiful huddled black form wedged tightly between the fences.
When I read Stowe's quote this time around, I had a different-than-usual take on the words "weak" and "strong." I saw that those who lord it over other beings are in fact mental and moral weaklings. They are unable or unwilling to let their conscience guide them. They fancy themselves all-powerful and all-controlling, but it's because they are covering up, instead of overcoming, their own fears and deficiencies.
Everyone who acts pitiless toward others must learn to replace a wrong concept of strength -- brute physical force or psychological manipulation or cruel words -- with the true idea of strength as the ability to tenderly feel for others, humbly respect others' rights, and unselfishly do good to others.
"How would I feel if I were that other being?" is the right question to ask. The right answer, felt in the heart, understood in the mind, and lived in actions, would cause each person acting the part of a bully to lay down the stick and hold out a helping hand. A caressing hand. A comforting hand. Yes, a strong hand.
P.S. That quote and two other quotes by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) can be found in CreatureQuotes.com, Chapter 9, pages 13 and 14.
I just ran across a quote that reminds me of Stowe's, written by another rights-proclaimer, justice-asserter, freedom-seeker of the same era, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910): "He who is afraid of being too generous has lost the power of being magnanimous. The best man or woman is the most unselfed" (Miscellany, p. 165). Generosity surely means an all-inclusive, non-speciesist spirit that leaves out not one fellow-being.
Thanks CQ - I agree that looking at man as whole and rational... Kind and generous... Would re-define what strength really is and ought to be.
Exerting force and brutality over "lesser" ones certainly isn't powerful... It's small and embarrassing to the human species. We ought to be better than thugs!
Thanks for helping nudge us along that way by adding these other thoughtful quotes. ;)
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