Flügelnacht
When I was about 23 or 24 I gradually drifted toward vegetarianism. I didn't eat a lot of meat anyway, and I was also being exposed to a lot of pro-vegetarian arguments at the time, most of which I agreed with. It seemed the sensible thing to do.
Most vegetarians I've met take the diet pretty seriously, and have been doing it long-term. I know a few ex-vegetarians too, myself being one. Why do some stay and some go? I think the ones who stay are the ones with a real gut-level repulsion for eating animals. It's so digusting, it's unthinkable.
I never shared this deep, emotional sentiment. My thought on the matter was as follows:
- there are many downsides to eating meat, for humans, animals (duh) and the environment
- the only reason to eat it is enjoyment
- I enjoy mainly vegetables anyway
That's it. No cringing at the thought of cages, hormones, suffering, cruelty, etc. Not so much a decision of the heart, but one of the mind. Thus, it only lasted about 8 or 9 years.
For me, intellect without guts is not enough to carry the mail on this issue. I still believe meat is generally unhealthy and bad in the grand scheme, but my tastes have changed over time and certain things that didn't tempt me before now do. The result is a lot of binge behaviour. I'll go a week without eating meat at all... then I'll get a donair after my radio show, and eat steak and eggs for breakfast. Maybe something else later. Then, on Monday I'm like, "Jeez, I can't believe I did that... I don't wanna live this way"... so I'm good for the rest of the week. Then the weekend arrives and it's like, "total decadence right the fuck now". Or something.
I don't see this pattern reverting to 1997 anytime soon. That said, sometimes something happens that gives you a different perspective. Take last night...
So a friend of mine has been trying to get me to go out to "wing night" with him and the guys. He's aware of my former vegetarianism and my current up-and-down state of meat consumption. "You could just drink", he says. Of course, that's not how it's going to be if I'm going to do that. Total decadence rtfn.
We're at the bar; the deal is, if there are at least two people you can order a pitcher of draught and you get a basket of ten wings with your choice of dipping sauce, all for 7,50$. When you're done the pitcher you may order another special.
Now, a little background: I've been friends with this guy for about 20 years. When we were skinny teenagers we used to like going to buffet restaurants and really pushing the limits. By eating an inhuman amount of food I felt like I was saying "fuck you" to the restaurant. In reality, I was just saying "fuck you" to my colon. But anyway.
Hanging out with this guy sort of brought me back to that athlete's mentality about eating... and by extention, drinking beer. People at the table shared stories of huge amounts of beer consumed over very small intervals.
"One time three of us polished off three pitchers in fifteen minutes".
I was clearly in a place where legends were born. I had to make a strong showing... out of respect for the game, if nothing else.
These lads are pros. Artists, even. I learned their systems for getting the pitcher emptied as fast as possible. The wings took care of themselves. And they kept coming. With beer. We (three of us) drank five pitchers and ate 50 wings in about an hour-ish. Very early on it had begun to feel like a game. I don't know who won. Not the 25 nameless chickens I guess.
If there were 25 live chickens in my room right now, that would seem like a lot to me. But we're only talking about one hour's worth of eating, on one night, for three people. How many wings must the bar have served that night? It wasn't even that busy. There are wing nights all over the city, and there are only about 360 000 people here. Now think of the entire western world. Try that math. Holy fuck.
How many chickens are there? Where does the rest of the chicken go? That's a lot of chickens making the ultimate sacrifice. Having it made for them. Shit.
This boggles my mind, but I admit it probably won't change my habits. Intellect Without Guts.
Most vegetarians I've met take the diet pretty seriously, and have been doing it long-term. I know a few ex-vegetarians too, myself being one. Why do some stay and some go? I think the ones who stay are the ones with a real gut-level repulsion for eating animals. It's so digusting, it's unthinkable.
I never shared this deep, emotional sentiment. My thought on the matter was as follows:
- there are many downsides to eating meat, for humans, animals (duh) and the environment
- the only reason to eat it is enjoyment
- I enjoy mainly vegetables anyway
That's it. No cringing at the thought of cages, hormones, suffering, cruelty, etc. Not so much a decision of the heart, but one of the mind. Thus, it only lasted about 8 or 9 years.
For me, intellect without guts is not enough to carry the mail on this issue. I still believe meat is generally unhealthy and bad in the grand scheme, but my tastes have changed over time and certain things that didn't tempt me before now do. The result is a lot of binge behaviour. I'll go a week without eating meat at all... then I'll get a donair after my radio show, and eat steak and eggs for breakfast. Maybe something else later. Then, on Monday I'm like, "Jeez, I can't believe I did that... I don't wanna live this way"... so I'm good for the rest of the week. Then the weekend arrives and it's like, "total decadence right the fuck now". Or something.
I don't see this pattern reverting to 1997 anytime soon. That said, sometimes something happens that gives you a different perspective. Take last night...
So a friend of mine has been trying to get me to go out to "wing night" with him and the guys. He's aware of my former vegetarianism and my current up-and-down state of meat consumption. "You could just drink", he says. Of course, that's not how it's going to be if I'm going to do that. Total decadence rtfn.
We're at the bar; the deal is, if there are at least two people you can order a pitcher of draught and you get a basket of ten wings with your choice of dipping sauce, all for 7,50$. When you're done the pitcher you may order another special.
Now, a little background: I've been friends with this guy for about 20 years. When we were skinny teenagers we used to like going to buffet restaurants and really pushing the limits. By eating an inhuman amount of food I felt like I was saying "fuck you" to the restaurant. In reality, I was just saying "fuck you" to my colon. But anyway.
Hanging out with this guy sort of brought me back to that athlete's mentality about eating... and by extention, drinking beer. People at the table shared stories of huge amounts of beer consumed over very small intervals.
"One time three of us polished off three pitchers in fifteen minutes".
I was clearly in a place where legends were born. I had to make a strong showing... out of respect for the game, if nothing else.
These lads are pros. Artists, even. I learned their systems for getting the pitcher emptied as fast as possible. The wings took care of themselves. And they kept coming. With beer. We (three of us) drank five pitchers and ate 50 wings in about an hour-ish. Very early on it had begun to feel like a game. I don't know who won. Not the 25 nameless chickens I guess.
If there were 25 live chickens in my room right now, that would seem like a lot to me. But we're only talking about one hour's worth of eating, on one night, for three people. How many wings must the bar have served that night? It wasn't even that busy. There are wing nights all over the city, and there are only about 360 000 people here. Now think of the entire western world. Try that math. Holy fuck.
How many chickens are there? Where does the rest of the chicken go? That's a lot of chickens making the ultimate sacrifice. Having it made for them. Shit.
This boggles my mind, but I admit it probably won't change my habits. Intellect Without Guts.
posted by the baron ash von foolishness at 5:58 PM
2 Comments:
i stopped eating meat once, a little while ago. because vegetarian-ism was trendy, and i wanted to be cool. it was around the same time i started smoking
How incredibly odd that I just read this now, after making sort of a vehement (albeit devil's advocacy-type) argument for vegetarianism over on locals like three minutes ago.
It's not a gut thing for me either. I have no compunctions about killing and eating an animal, if necessary. It just mostly isn't necessary.
Although it isn't much of a radical change at all, the little details of vegetarianism are still pretty new to me, and I'm approaching it with a "freegan" sort of outlook. I ate that omelette the other night because I'd ordered it without thinking, and it would have been just as consumptive and more wasteful to have them toss it out and make another.
This morning I ordered a breakfast burrito at Mollyzzzzz, and they ended up putting sausage in it. I used to live for breakfast links. Seriously. I'm not sure what the difference in reasoning ultimately is between these two cases, but I sent it back and it was sort of a little quiet revelation for me.
I'm not trying to be incredibly topical or anything, just opining really. It's important to set boundaries, but it's bad to be unquestioningly rigid about them.
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