Any other prog-rock vegans/vegetarians out there?

anyone else take their progressiveness farther than their musical tastes and onto their plate?  I've been a vegan for a couple of months now, and was somewhat inspired by Jon Anderson actually (though he apparently now eats fish).  I personally got into veganism because of ethical reasons; i felt as though i should limit my exploitation of other beings, but after only a few weeks i was feeling health benefits as well.  I dont really know any other vegans, so i'd love to connect with some people who share musical tastes and diet!

Edited by Fighter - February 01 2013 at 00:11

haha, sorry if you took that personally.  I didn't mean to say i think others are living unethically, but just that i feel like i am living most ethically this way.  there's lots of arguments about why it is more ethical (just one would be the amount of food used to fatten up live-stock could feed all the worlds starving people many times over) and i found those arguments spoke to me, but really got to me was just that i wanted to more fully express my compassion for other living beings and nature by letting animals live their lives instead of endorsing their exploitation.  theres also arguments that say being vegan is not ethical, ive read tons of them when i was new to veganism, and to be honest i found the reasoning behind those arguments to be poor.

As I said, no desire to argue. 'Ethical' invokes the morality of right and wrong, implying that one is more right for adopting a particular lifestyle choice than someone who doesn't. I fully support and endorse any choice that relieves suffering and harm to another creature, call that compassion or empathy or sympathy if you will, but not being a vegan is not an unethical choice. Therefore any reasoning that veganism is ethical or not is always going to be poor because arguing the morality of right and wrong is not determined by diet, if that were so then lions, wolves, bears, sharks, piranhas, crocodiles, snakes, badgers, mink, ferrets, moles, eagles, vultures, crows, venus flytraps, bacteria, blowflies and all other meat-eating creatures would be wrong and immoral and thus would be unethical by the standards you would adopt for an omnivorous creature, such as a human. Saying you have no wish to eat any food that exploits an animal is okay, though claiming that in doing so would allow them to live their lives instead is debatable (and ultimately false), so calling it more ethical is emotive but incorrect. It is a choice you make, (albeit one that modern arable farming technology has allowed you to make), just as my choosing not to eat cauliflower is a choice I make.  

Jim Garten wrote: As do I - Welcome to the forum - you may find this thread of interest too.

Fighter wrote: anyone else take their progressiveness farther than their musical tastes and onto their plate?  I've been a vegan for a couple of months now, and was somewhat inspired by Jon Anderson actually (though he apparently now eats fish).  I personally got into veganism because of ethical reasons; i felt as though i should limit my exploitation of other beings, but after only a few weeks i was feeling health benefits as well.  I dont really know any other vegans, so i'd love to connect with some people who share musical tastes and diet!

But I wouldn't say it's wrong to be a carnivore. But we can always evaluate our habits and develop them in any direction that seems interesting or valuable for us.

I took a step towards vegetarianism 10 months ago. But the main principle is to eat less meat and better food in general. But I still eat chicken and fish, so I'm not really a vegetarian. I mostly vegetarian food though. First I thought it would be too difficult for me to become a vegetarian, but I'm not sure what made me go through with that change (of not eating meat except chicken and fish). It was just a feeling, it was not about morals. I wouldn't have gone through that change if I didn't feel like it. I can still eat red meat if I want to though, but  I haven't so far. I've been tempted to eat lamb....but I think I can resist the temptation for some more time. It's all dependent on my learning new vegetarian stuff to eat. Because it's sad to sacrifise great food experiences and just make it into a necessity. I value food highly.

With that said I can't promise that I won't start eating red meat again, or start allowing some specific kinds of meat......but I don't like the idea.


Edited by wilmon91 - February 01 2013 at 09:43

wilmon91 wrote: Dean wrote: Therefore any reasoning that veganism is ethical or not is always going to be poor because arguing the morality of right and wrong is not determined by diet, if that were so then lions, wolves, bears, sharks, piranhas, crocodiles, snakes, badgers, mink, ferrets, moles, eagles, vultures, crows, venus flytraps, bacteria, blowflies and all other meat-eating creatures would be wrong and immoral and thus would be unethical by the standards you would adopt for an omnivorous creature, such as a human. Those animals doesn't have the freedom to choose as humans do. I don't know if it's possible for a wolf to start eating vegetables. And even if they could, they might not have the intellectual reasoning capability to convince themselves to stop eating animals. Living beings fight for survival. But if you have freedomof choice, you can consider different options. With more freedom comes more responsibility.

I once took my progressiveness too literally further and eat a little bit of Phil Collins' right butt cheek but it tasted like smelly fish so I returned to regressive non-homosapiens meat. 

Padraic wrote: