The Simile of Sleepwalking (and Stannis Baratheon)
11 November 2016 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
one of my feelings about veganism that
maybe separates me from other people in the movement is that I really feel and I mean feel that veganism is ineluctably a political movement even if you think it's a lifestyle even if you think it's a diet even if you think your personal engagement with it is completely non-political I think you can't escape the fact that this is a political movement but that I mean you don't we leave a choice in the matter I'm not saying it's up to you to decide whether or not it's political matter I'm saying there are people who are sleepwalking through this people who are unaware that their in a political movement there are people were doing a very poor job of advocating for and supporting it spread that political but it nevertheless is a political movement this reminds me of a kind of funny um I don't know trope from the game of thrones books known as song of ice and fire one of the characters Stannis his fundamental problem in life is that he doesn't want to become king he doesn't see himself as aspiring to become king he sees himself as already being the king of Westeros the king of this kingdom but merely being surrounded by people who fail to realize that on the book he has a legal reason for thinking that there was the laws of succession it's not worth reflecting on here but it's interesting because politically it makes him stupid inflexible harsh incapable of negotiations be capable of coming to a peace treaty but it means that he regards everyone else's sleepwalking why is it that everyone else around him doesn't realize that he's already the king he's not a rebel he's not fighting a revolution he's not trying to take over he already is the king it's just bizarre to him that other people don't realize that yet so as if the rest of the world you know is populated by sleepwalkers who he just has to wake up for them to realize that he's already the legitimate King and the only possible idiot okay in this you know fictional political scenario some of you can probably already guess why what I'm raising this in parallel to veganism you know there's a sense in which some of us vegans the vegans who realize this is a political movement this is intellect ibly a political struggle even if it's one that's stumbling along now even if it's one where the majority of people engage in it don't want it to be a political movement they just want to promote it as a lifestyle or a weight loss diet they want to take it in some other direction there's a sense in which each side kind of regards the other is sleepwalking this already is a political movement you just don't realize it yet you know and on a grander scale I think vegans look around at the Society of meters around us and we feel like there's this tremendously powerful tremendously important ethical truth that we're all awake to that we're all aware of that changes our lives forever and our fellow human beings are sleepwalking because they're you know they're lining up in the same cafeteria every day and eating meat they don't need to the killing animals that kill in themselves etc etc etc I very much grew up in a culture and in a formal political science education that held up compromise and negotiation as the highest virtues and that anyone who is uncompromising was presumed to be evil I know intransigent counterproductive extremists I definitely grew up in a context in Canada maybe partly because Canada was going through its own very subtle watch a revolution with the attempts of Quebec to separate and become a super country that if only people could be reasonable if only people could be more compromising the world would have no wars the world would have no tragedies the world would have no violent revolutions that somehow if only you know Quebec could sit down to the table at me halfway if only the labor unions and the factory owners could sit down at a table and compromise if only Russia and the United States during the Cold War if only the enemies of the world could sit down in commbuys only we could all be more compromising the world would be a better and more peaceful place that was maybe part of the moral tone of the Cold War in Canada and probably reflects the peculiar role Canada played as you know a background assistance to the United States Empire during the Cold War but not quite a thrilled advocate for Mary number but in veganism you know we're in this realm where we can't compromise you know we're in this realm where no matter how polite we are about it the fundamental truth is we feel that we are a hundred percent right and the meat eaters or a hundred percent wrong we feel like we're awake to the truth and the reality of what animal exploitation is what factory farming is etc and that everyone where everyone else around us is sleepwalking and like Stannis like the character from the book game of thrones that puts you in a terrible position where you can't really negotiate a peace treaty you can't really negotiate a final settlement settlement there's no clear course of action in terms of call for compromise or cooperation with the other people the people on the other side of the table who you regard as being asleep to the fundamental reality of the law
maybe separates me from other people in the movement is that I really feel and I mean feel that veganism is ineluctably a political movement even if you think it's a lifestyle even if you think it's a diet even if you think your personal engagement with it is completely non-political I think you can't escape the fact that this is a political movement but that I mean you don't we leave a choice in the matter I'm not saying it's up to you to decide whether or not it's political matter I'm saying there are people who are sleepwalking through this people who are unaware that their in a political movement there are people were doing a very poor job of advocating for and supporting it spread that political but it nevertheless is a political movement this reminds me of a kind of funny um I don't know trope from the game of thrones books known as song of ice and fire one of the characters Stannis his fundamental problem in life is that he doesn't want to become king he doesn't see himself as aspiring to become king he sees himself as already being the king of Westeros the king of this kingdom but merely being surrounded by people who fail to realize that on the book he has a legal reason for thinking that there was the laws of succession it's not worth reflecting on here but it's interesting because politically it makes him stupid inflexible harsh incapable of negotiations be capable of coming to a peace treaty but it means that he regards everyone else's sleepwalking why is it that everyone else around him doesn't realize that he's already the king he's not a rebel he's not fighting a revolution he's not trying to take over he already is the king it's just bizarre to him that other people don't realize that yet so as if the rest of the world you know is populated by sleepwalkers who he just has to wake up for them to realize that he's already the legitimate King and the only possible idiot okay in this you know fictional political scenario some of you can probably already guess why what I'm raising this in parallel to veganism you know there's a sense in which some of us vegans the vegans who realize this is a political movement this is intellect ibly a political struggle even if it's one that's stumbling along now even if it's one where the majority of people engage in it don't want it to be a political movement they just want to promote it as a lifestyle or a weight loss diet they want to take it in some other direction there's a sense in which each side kind of regards the other is sleepwalking this already is a political movement you just don't realize it yet you know and on a grander scale I think vegans look around at the Society of meters around us and we feel like there's this tremendously powerful tremendously important ethical truth that we're all awake to that we're all aware of that changes our lives forever and our fellow human beings are sleepwalking because they're you know they're lining up in the same cafeteria every day and eating meat they don't need to the killing animals that kill in themselves etc etc etc I very much grew up in a culture and in a formal political science education that held up compromise and negotiation as the highest virtues and that anyone who is uncompromising was presumed to be evil I know intransigent counterproductive extremists I definitely grew up in a context in Canada maybe partly because Canada was going through its own very subtle watch a revolution with the attempts of Quebec to separate and become a super country that if only people could be reasonable if only people could be more compromising the world would have no wars the world would have no tragedies the world would have no violent revolutions that somehow if only you know Quebec could sit down to the table at me halfway if only the labor unions and the factory owners could sit down at a table and compromise if only Russia and the United States during the Cold War if only the enemies of the world could sit down in commbuys only we could all be more compromising the world would be a better and more peaceful place that was maybe part of the moral tone of the Cold War in Canada and probably reflects the peculiar role Canada played as you know a background assistance to the United States Empire during the Cold War but not quite a thrilled advocate for Mary number but in veganism you know we're in this realm where we can't compromise you know we're in this realm where no matter how polite we are about it the fundamental truth is we feel that we are a hundred percent right and the meat eaters or a hundred percent wrong we feel like we're awake to the truth and the reality of what animal exploitation is what factory farming is etc and that everyone where everyone else around us is sleepwalking and like Stannis like the character from the book game of thrones that puts you in a terrible position where you can't really negotiate a peace treaty you can't really negotiate a final settlement settlement there's no clear course of action in terms of call for compromise or cooperation with the other people the people on the other side of the table who you regard as being asleep to the fundamental reality of the law