Nicole King – Holy Cow

Most of us, myself included, are quick to pass judgement on basically everyone and everything throughout the day.  Without even realizing it we tend to evaluate the service we receive, how polite or interesting someone may be, how they look, how they dress, how they drive, the list could go on.   Usually it’s in a negative way too, not with malicious intent but more perhaps to validate ourselves and pamper our egos by comparison.  We are not born with this need for endorsement, it’s a learnt habit and one that we are best served to quit. 

What society do we live in that makes us need to see that someone is fatter or less successful to feel better about ourselves? Why do we need to gossip or prove how knowledgeable we are; why this need to feel superior to others?  Why do we express our thoughts as if they were facts and disregard others’ beliefs with such flippancy?  It’s worrying.

Just the other day I was listening to a conversation where they were discussing vegans and how they are always trying to shove their stupid opinions down everyone’s throat.  My daughter and her family are vegan so this peaked my interest as they never try and convince anyone of anything, no matter how misguided we may be in their eyes.

One person in particular said he knew an overbearing vegan and was looking forward to pointing out to said individual that he’d heard that if cows aren’t milked it could be bad for them. He even looked it up on Google.  I do understand that any fanatic can be overbearing and I get where he was coming from, but his motivation blinded the facts and his online search.

He limited himself to validate his point of view but no further; if he had investigated further he would also have learnt that cows only produce milk after giving birth and that cows are artificially impregnated by metallic phalluses, over and over again, so they can produce our milk.    This is a fact.  Cows only make milk through pregnancy and so they are continually raped and their babies taken from them for nefarious purposes: to suit our culinary demands.

Even knowing this horrifying scenario, I still drink milk and eat meat but I’m not proud that I chose to ignore the facts so as not to disrupt my way of life but at least I’m not giving myself a pat on the back thinking that I’m doing the cow a favour.

He was unaware of the process as are most of us, the difference lies in that he continued to feel clever and joke about the “stupid” vegans in spite of his obvious ignorance.

I realise that I’ve written an entirely judgemental column when I’m in no position to judge anyone but I do think this is a sign of the times: that we are not open to dialogue nor interested in researching the facts before voicing our opinionated opinions. Again, worrying.