Veganism is like a Religion

I start my text with Logic using the what I call the vegan paradox:

If everyone in the world were to be vegetarian only drinking one drop of milk per year each, the world would be totally sustainable without harming any animal, and though there would not exist any vegan in the world.

Veganism in this sense uses the same methodology as any religion, it gives one plausible and truthful arguments so that one can act radically in their habits, hence simply and totally stopping eating and consuming any animal products, regardless of how they were collected. For the sake of understanding my point of view, we might give alcohol prohibition as an interesting comparison. It is known that alcohol provokes a series of social and health problems to several communities and individuals and that's why there was a prohibition in the United States. Several other Christian cultured countries, in some periods of their histories, also forbade the consumption of alcohol. Whereas in western societies such problems regarding the consumption of alcohol were ruled by civil and criminal laws, in Arabic countries, such alcohol prohibitions were set by religious laws and inquisitional traditions, but the causes for such forbiddance of consumption are exactly the same, whether a religious or a civil law is applied. Forbidding anything for being evil is much easier for transmitting a rule to other individuals, than explaining how one should act and how the consequences of an action might be harmful to oneself or others. It is believed that it is due to the same scientific reasons Muslims and Jews don't eat pork, since pigs were animals that during several centuries, mainly in hot climates, were transmitters of several diseases, said diseases at the time more present in animal blood; explaining also why the religious practices demand that they pour the blood out from the slaughtered animal before the meat is prepared for eating. Sacralizing those habits, acts and prohibitions into the religious frameworks, canons and rules, was the most effective method to transmit the public order and the healthy habits into the non scientifically cultured and illiterate population. Religion always played an important role in that sense, since it is very effective in transmitting good habits to the population without the usage of police enforcement units. One might call it mass behavioral control when television and mass media didn't even exist.

I abstain myself from eating meat for several years. I simply don't eat it because despite the environmental and health issues, I don't think there is a fair usage of meat, since it always demands in any case, animal killing. If I eat a portion of pork or beef, I immediately and directly contribute to the slaughter of an animal. Though if I drink a glass of milk per week, the direct link is much harder to logically sustain, as theoretically it is possible to have cows just for the unique purpose of milk production. In that sense the problem, as investigators sustain, is not milk per se, it is though the amount of milk and dairy products our society consume and how the livestock industries are organised. But a vegan simply and radically abstains himself from drinking any drop of milk, or eating any egg, facing such rules, as a Muslim religious believer faces the rule of not drinking alcohol, even if said alcohol is totally inoffensive, like the one it is used for marinating same dishes.

Nevertheless these critics, I partially understand those radical approaches. I, for example, smoked one pack of cigars per day for several years, and I am perfectly aware of the harm that such consumption provoked on me, and I am also aware that the tobacco consumption provokes a strong neurochemical addiction. In that sense, my own personal "religion" dictates me, that I shall never again smoke any cigar in my life, even a simple blow, because I am already aware of the health damages and addiction. Having a binary or an on/off approach to habits, is much simpler and easier to follow than rule oneself on the consumption, usage or acting on several different aspects of life. Take another example, for instance the sexual relations. According to several theological works written by Christian men in the past, mainly in the Middle Age, delivering oneself to lusty practices was immoral, since those actions would destroy the pillar of the family and would therefore rotten the society. Practically what those theological men wanted, in a time where child mortality was very high, was population growth. And instead of proposing moderate sexual habits before marriage for example, the theological writers simply linked those deeds with sin and totally forbade them, creating the notion of the lusty sin of fornication, i.e., sexual intercourse before marriage and hence punished by God.

I truthfully respect vegans, because they are a powerful counter-force in a world dictated by profit where animals are nothing but transmissible money-measurable assets or commodities in a global economy. Sometimes we need extreme counter non-violent actions in a world dictated by extreme generalized habits. But the vegans chose the path that religious men have for many centuries chosen in the past, they abandoned reasonable and wise consumption habits and they adopted the radical approach, i.e., the total abstinence of animal products consumption even if that consumption, theoretically, is completely sustainable and it does not harm any animal. In that sense, they adopted the same behavioral technique that Muslims, Christians and Jews adopted in the several periods of their lives, because as said before, it is much easier to pass and carry on an habit with simple binary rules than learning how to have a moderate, frugal and sustainable life style.