I think you’ve hit on one of the classic moral dilemnas (ie. running errands for friends / colleagues who ask you to buy something that’s against your principles).

I have come up against this problem many times myself and am ashamed to say that even within the last year I have bought meat products for colleagues at work. However, I have since spoken to my superiors and have been excused from such duties in future.

It would be interesting to know if there are any vegans who would refuse to fetch cheese sandwiches, kurma curries or naan bread etc for their vegetarian friends.

I also wonder if, when in these sorts of situations, it would carry more weight if we refused to fetch such products on religious grounds ie Jainism) as opposed to vegan / vegetarian grounds.

Best wishes
Jonathan

Yes none of us are perfect – but as long as we are striving to be as ethical as possible, if we are accepting of others performing harmful actions is that as bad as us performing the actions are ourselves….

Perhaps look at this example:

On many occassions at university – my friends would ask me to either:

a) Pick up a can of tuna when I was doing shopping at tescos to save them the trip

b) Pick up a burger / chicken on the way home from uni…

One the one hand – I could be accepting of their views, acknowledge that they were going to buy it anyway and purchase the items on their behalf…

But on the other – doing that would almost undermine what I believe in.

If I were to refuse to do something (i.e. antagonise them and not accept their actions)- and offering only to bring home vegan items on their behalf – they could refuse to bring home vegan items for me when I ask them to buy things on my behalf to save me time….

Fortunately I did not have that great a problem – after the first time we had a discussion – we spoke about my views (and in fact my muslim house mate had a similar view with respect to alcohol and non-halal meat) – and most agreed that it would be unfair for them to ask me to purchase something that I believed to be wrong – and so did not
ask me again after the first time. they also acknowledged veganism to be something they would strive towards – but felt it was far too difficult to even be vegetarian…

Even if this situation seems a bit too simple – there are other occasions where being accepting of others views can be damaging for yourself:

For example if going out to eat with non-vegetarian colleagues or friends… one member of the group has the ability to influence the restaurant chosen (i.e. I know that if I put enough effort into it – that my non-vegetarian friends will eat at a vegetarian restaurant – but if I don’t we will end up eating at a non-vegetarian restaurant)…

The amount of animals that consumed on that evening thus becomes a direct result of the effort put into choosing what restaurant to go to by the vegetarian. If one inteprets being accepting of other peoples views as one which allows others to eat where they choose, being accepting of their views indirectly causes individuals who believe that killing animals for food to be wrong to allow unnecessary killing of animals for food to take place.

Its very difficult to strike the balance between being accepting, antagonising, understadning and consistent with your beliefs…..

Its all well and good to only want to asociate oneself with other vegans that don’t require you to put yourself in that a position that will compromise these values, but at the same time unless you try and do something about what is going on in the greater world (and thus are in touch in non vegans) you will never able to achieve desirable change….

The inconsistency/hypocracy issue is probably the biggest
criticism that I have received from others, and I find that the best response is to simply accept that some of my beliefs *may* by inconsistent but state that I feel that I am doing the best that I can, given the environment I live in and the limitations of my willpower. As long as I don’t try to be argumentative, most people seem to accept this response and are generally sympathetic towards my beliefs.

Re my ‘I don’t know’….let me know if you work out

Heens

Really love what you wrote above and when I read it I thought….”I don’t know”…..so that in itself is such a discovery, I’m still trying to find out, living in it….putting aside customs, traditions, etiquettes…for they are not life…not getting caught up in those things…

Here are some words from J.Krishnamurti which I liked v. much-

“The fact is that truth is life, and life has no permanency. Life has to be discovered, it cannot be taken for granted.If you take it for granted that you know life, you are not living. Life is something to be discovered; and you cannot discover it if you have not lost, if you have not put aside the things that you have found.”

Anyways….sending you a few blessings to add grace to your day….much love + peace

ajay