Excusatarianism

9 Excuses for Not Going Vegan

I like to hear people’s excuses for not cutting animal products out of their diets because it means they’re actually thinking about it.

A few people in my life lately have told me that my simple presence ‘makes them feel guilty’ about their diets, but the funny thing is they are always the ones to bring up the discussion.

When I remind them that I can’t ‘make’ them feel anything, this is when the juicy part happens; they start to fight with themselves about how consuming animal products is ‘okay’.

Have you ever read the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? Well it talks about how when men grumble about doing a requested task, women should see this as a sign of love because this is the process of how men reach within to put the woman’s needs first. This is the exact same thing that happens when people generate excuses to stop eating animals – this is their growth process and it was once mine, too.

Here are the top 9 self-fights I’ve been hearing:

1. It’s Hard Enough being Vegetarian, let alone Vegan.

I feel you. I’ve been there. I was vegetarian for 10+years and towards the end was trying to eat less dairy. But as long as I continued to see dairy as food, I would still eat it. When you learn about the link to casein and most major diseases, when you learn that rape is a mandatory part of dairy, and when you realize that veal is the mandatory byproduct of dairy (calves kept in solitary confinement from birth, then slaughtered as infants), this sickly product starts to look less like food. Mix it with the blood, pus, and bacteria that mixes in during processing  and this secretion cocktail becomes simply inedible.

So what will happen if you don’t have dairy and eggs to support your meat-free diet?? You’ll inevitably make healthier choices. That was the main thing I found in transitioning from vegetarian to vegan. I had to avoid the quickie junk foods like chocolate bars, baked goods when out and about, ice cream, cheese, some types of potato chips, etc. I reached instead for snacks like fruit, some kinds of granola bars, nuts, smoothies, and homemade things. It’s harder to go wrong when vegan because your palette of choices is healthier.

So when worrying that you’ll be even less ‘nourished’ if you take the full plunge, it’s actually easier to be a healthy vegan than a healthy vegetarian.

*I’m all for ‘junk’ food! But as a treat, not a staple.

2. Eating Animal Products is Normal

I’ve heard this one a lot lately. I’m the freak, the animal consuming loved ones are normal because they represent the majority.

In our everyday lives, how many of us kill sentient beings? In our modern day society, this type of behavior usually merits jail and probably the psych ward, and maybe even the fate of being murdered in jail.

In our ‘civilized’ society, killing is not socially acceptable behavior. So then how is hiring others to do if for you behind closed doors any different? Animal cruelty is considered especially sick in our modern world – akin to child molestation.

Eating animal  products = killing.

Killing is not normal. Not anymore, anyway. This isn’t Middle Earth.

3. Veganism Doesn’t Make a Difference Anyway

Less than 1% of the population is vegan so what’s the point? It saves 90 animals per person a year!

Many people believe that unless everyone goes vegan, their doing it somehow doesn’t count. Who cares what everyone else is doing? If you can’t do it, how can you expect anyone else to?

As I said above, you can’t make anyone do anything. All you have control of is yourself and your actions. And that’s all you need.

The real difference is how you feel in making such a small, huge change.

4. I Don’t Like Vegetables that Much

Are you a mama’s boy/girl who was indulged to only eat chicken nuggets and donuts as a kid? Did your idea of veggies consist of perfectly sliced cold cuts and tons of Ranch dip? I was. I was raised with perpetual vegetable threats, probably because my parents had themselves been indoctrinated to believe that if it’s good for you, it probably doesn’t go down easily. Lies.

It’s time to reprogram. Small bites at a time.

You are not a crazy nasty ass honey badger. Do you know how badly your body is craving fresh fruit and vegetables? Can you hear the callings?

But if you love your comfort foods, you can still eat them. Any animal-based indulgence can be vegan: Cadbury cream eggs, poutine, meatball subs, Blizzards, ice cream cake, insert craving here> _____.

5. Eating Animals is a Personal Choice

Some become absolutely livid when confronted about their animal-based diets. How DARE you? they hurl. Eating animals is a PERSONAL choice. I don’t pressure YOU to eat animals.

Well, asking someone to behave non-violently is a little different than asking someone to behave violently, to begin with.

That aside, I believe we are now smart enough as a human race to understand that eating animals is no more a right than enslaving other humans. If eating animals destroys the environment at exponentially greater rates that plant agriculture, if the resources used to raise them perpetuates worldwide hunger when veganism would feed many more, if eating these ‘foods’ is keeping people perpetually ill with documented correlated diseases… then how is this personal?

Eating animals affects us all.

We have a responsibility to the planet, to the other species of this planet, to the oppressed people who are as enslaved as the animals who we pay to kill them, and to ourselves.

I’m all for individualism. However the very idea of civilization is based on the idea that our freedom ends at the loss of another person’s freedom. And what we are learning is that eating animals infringes on not only the violent treatment towards animals, but the violent treatment to people (starvation, destruction of environment, diseases, dangerous slaughterhouse conditions, etc.)

We are only as free as our neighbors.

6. Animal Rights is Not my Cause

Some people feel that going vegan is like choosing a charity to volunteer for. It’s an option among many. Nice try.

You can be vegan and still support whatever causes you choose. It’s not an either/or matter.

The movie Bold Native explains that animal rights activists are the ones who say: me, I will help; I will do something about it. While you don’t need to become an animal rights activist to be vegan, being vegan is the same concept of realizing that if you eat animal products you are the cause of suffering in factory farms, and therefore showing the world that you are willing to try a different lifestyle to change that.

7. Veganism is a Sacrifice

Hate that word. It doesn’t represent me at all. Yet I identify about 95% with the vegan concept. Veganism is not about cutting things out of your diet, it’s about redefining what you see as food.

From the outside, going vegan probably looks like giving something up, but once you’re in the loop learning new cooking skills and places to eat, and meeting veganish people, not only is it not a chore, but it’s a blessing, inside & out.

When you think about it, you’re only cutting out three main animals from your diet: chickens, cows, and pigs (lamb, fish for some). These 3 elements that make up a huge portion of the North American diet. How many thousands of other foods exist that you are not trying because you’re perpetuating a diet your TV raised you with?

The concept of sacrifice is the opposite of non-violence. Sacrifice is the idea that we must suffer for something greater. Non-violence is the quality of approaching all things gently. Veganism is a lifestyle that embraces non-violence. ‘Embrace’ being the key term.

8. Veganism is a Huge Commitment

You don’t have to be convinced that this new lifestyle will work. You don’t have to make a lifetime commitment. Going vegan is like working on your flexibility – one day at a time. Hurts a bit to start, but feels sooo good to progress and expand your power as a human being.

Before assuming that you’re going to be hungry all the time, actually try it for a few days. You will be hungrier more often, because you’re body will be digesting food faster. But you will also be entirely satiated, just without the heaviness.

Like Alicia Silverstone says: flirt.

9. Vegans are Annoying and I Don’t Want to be Like You

Guilty. People who lean towards veganism in all its variations can be really annoying. Hard to say if they’re genuinely excited about their transformations, or if they’re just trying to spread propaganda to ‘convert’ you. But they sure are vocal about their choices for the most part.

You do realize you can be a silent vegan, right? It’s just that most vegans don’t want to stay silent because they are having the time of their lives growing past what they once knew.

Why Capitalism Will Never Work. Ever.

Capitalism is Collapsing:

11 Reasons Why it’s About Time

In a lengthy Facebook debate recently, I was told that I was using capitalism as a ‘strawman’ to boost my anarchic Venus Project ideas. I replied that I didn’t make capitalism a strawman, it simply is a strawman – easy to destroy.

As the masses shake off their shackles of financial oppression, capitalists such as former IMF chief economist, Kenneth Rogoff, try to spin the epidemic by agreeing that: sure there are some problems but no real imminent revolution, trying to minimize the international uprising. But the Occupy movement is part of the slow waking up of human consciousness – people are finally realizing that they’re being used.

In this post, I’m going to break down why capitalism is inherently flawed by listing its false premises.

1) Capitalism is Not Barter

Barter implies the exchange of commodities of EQUAL value. Capitalism often tries to ride the coattails of barter as ‘a free market exchange system’, but while barter aims for a trade that equally benefits both parties, capitalism is based on profit, which means that one party must always exploit the other party in some way to get ahead, whether it’s an employer exploiting their employees by paying them just enough to get them to stay, or a merchant charging a customer as much as they possibly can without the customer spending their money elsewhere. Capitalism strives not for sustainability, but for gaining the ‘little bit more’ than the other party, ie. profit. Capitalism ensures that there will always be a winner, and as a result, not only the other half, but 99% loses.

Should we also talk about how capitalism has morphed beyond goods and services to trading abstract concepts such as derivatives that most people don’t even understand? I would, if I understood more about it.

2) Capitalism Breeds Sociopathy

Some argue that capitalism, while not ‘fair’, does reward those who work the hardest. But by now we know that those who come out on top of the capitalist game not necessarily those who work the hardest, but are actually:

a) those who are most interested in financial gain

Excelling at financial gain is just one strength of many other equal strengths – those who excel at science, math, writing, raising children, etc. are just as important to the quality of life of our society.

b) those who are already in a position of financial privilege

Should businesses necessarily be started only by those who have the funds? This just leads to more financial imbalance of the rich getting richer.

Or what about growing up in a wealthy family? This leads to segregation among classes, elitism, and resentment. And politicians like Newt Gingrich suggesting that poor kids work as janitors at lunch to make money.

c) those who are most physically and/or mentally endowed

Many financially successful people feel as though they deserve their monetary gain because they have worked hard for it. But what other traits led them to their financial gain? Many people don’t realize how brilliant they actually are and how many other people don’t have the same intellectual or physical capability. Sure, a businessman who works 8-5 for 40 years has worked hard, but hasn’t a person with physical or mental disabilities perhaps worked just as hard at tackling their own obstacles?

What we essentially live in is a meritocracy. When we are not born equal, capitalism only exacerbates our individual weaknesses.

e) those who are the most ruthless 

Capitalism is the economic system of ‘survival of the fittest’. This is a vicious and often violent mindset, when ‘fittest’ becomes interchangeable with ‘most ruthless’.

Going further down this mental mindset could lead all the way to eugenics – a valid concept to explore, but loaded with potential for genocide and other types of oppression.

3) Capitalism Trumps Community

Capitalism is in direct competition with community, which is why it’s illegal to have a bake sale on the streets of Vancouver, it’s illegal for homeless people to congregate in tent cities, and it’s illegal to exercise free speech in many places unless that space has already been determined a ‘free speech zone’ or unless one purchases a permit.

Canada’s media is among the most consolidated in the world – why? Because a few individuals managed to purchase it. So the community does not talk amongst itself in mainstream media, it is talked to by the voices of its paying customers. How is Canwest owning the media any different from Monsanto purchasing patents on organic life?

Instead of having places of true ‘free space’, capitalism dictates what activities can be held in what zones. For example: in Wal*Mart – you shop. You don’t sit and relax, or play cards with friends. Wal*Mart owns that space and while you’re there Wal*Mart tells you what to do, the same as in any private property.

When we go out to socialize, we rent a portion of space and are expected to get in and get out, buying enough to justify our presence there. Capitalism frowns upon simply giving things away because then it’s more difficult to control what’s being exchanged. Capitalism wants to track, measure, rate, evaluate, classify… which brings me to my next point.

*(To digress,  non-profits such as Liberation BC can’t be considered charities because they actually strive to change laws. This is how charities can get tax breaks while activist groups can’t – a blatant policy to stifle activism or anything that opposes capitalist reign.)

4) Capitalism is a Control Freak

Capitalism aims to dissect and package what we have to work with until everything has been claimed and assigned a dollar value in a bloody race to the finish. It is so fearful of scarcity that it mutates into a complex knot of rules and regulations until they make no sense anymore and can be interpreted about as clearly as the bible.

Capitalism has so much fine print that entire sectors must be devoted to defining its rules and policing the rules. These sectors are made up of anal people policing each other. I’ve worked with them. They are so pressured to ‘fit in’, that they will call you out if you don’t fit in to ease their own pressure, the corps. don’t even need to get involved – it’s a self-cleaning system.

And have you heard the one about the fat cop spraying the cross legged activists like an exterminator? (Don’t worry he was fired reprimanded.) What exactly do you think he’s trying to protect? I doubt he knows, but his heavy-handed training taught him to protect the current dominant economic system that employs him.

In the U.S., anyone who upsets business trade can now be labeled a terrorist, and (even more recently) detained and tortured (some articles say assassinated) on the grounds of suspicion without legal process (!)

When we have demonstrations against fur stores in Vancouver, which side do the cops stand on? The side of the store, of course.

Now… what makes people become control freaks?

Oh, right. Insecurity.

5) Capitalism has Nothing to do with Democracy

Those who wave the flag of capitalism believe that it provides them with the freedom to prosper. By now we know that 1% of the people own 99% of the world’s wealth. So ok, let’s lower our expectations of financial prosperity to simply the freedom to have guaranteed income and a home. Not so easy – inflation soars, interest rates waver at the hands of the major banks, minimum wage drags its feet to keep up, social programs are snipped to pay off national debts, and your worth as an employee declines as technology leaves your skills behind. Sorry, pal.

So what does this leave us with? Freedom to choose. How we want to spend our 8 hour work days, sort of. Consumer freedom – well, based on the declining selection of monopolized corps. And freedom of our small slices of free time. As long as you stay leashed to your designated areas of habitation and employment and don’t break any laws or get caught looking bad on Facebook or make your co-workers feel uncomfortable by being too different from them or….

This is a rather vast point to explore, but for me, true freedom comes with knowing that as I flourish, others do not suffer. Capitalism creates a world of winners and losers, employers and employees. For one to win, others must lose.

6) Capitalism is Drama

Capitalism has us chasing our tails to fill arbitrary 8 hour days, celebrating and grieving stock market crashes and bail outs – such unnecessary drama. Wouldn’t it be nice if the busy work was automated and those who wanted to play the money game could in some virtual reality scenario? And those who didn’t want to play wouldn’t starve their families because of that?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could create our own drama instead of being a slave to the hormonal capitalist outbursts?

7) Capitalism Wastes Time

In Tim Ferris’s book 4 Hour Work Week, he describes the perfect job as ‘one that takes the least amount of time.’ Most people would rather be doing something else rather than what they’re doing. Do people have the insight to imagine what that might be after being indoctrinated by the media and public education their entire lives? Perhaps not. They have forgotten how to imagine a more satisfying life. Could these people learn to live by their gifts and not their jobs? Sure, quickly.

People spend so much energy simply surviving. Shouldn’t we be past worrying about survival by now? We’re not cavemen – it’s 2012. There are more than enough resources to ensure that every single person on this planet could prosper. So, as Foster Gamble points out: why aren’t we thriving?

How much time do we waste re-writing the rules, translating the rules, establishing bureaucracy around the rules, enforcing the rules, punishing people for not adhering to the rules? How much free time and resources would we have without all this excess?

Sure, transitions can be messy, but once new systems are established, how many redundant, boring jobs could be eliminated? How many wasted lives could be resurrected?

8) Capitalism is Addictive

Or rather, capital is. Money is and always be a virus in the human mind because we can never get enough. Money is (well, really it’s debt) but in our society it represents potential power and potential power is never something that you can achieve and put aside – its obtainment is a lifestyle. Two words: dangling carrot.

In Zeitgeist III when I saw pictures of people throwing away their money, I wanted to go and pick it up. I have the addiction, too. We place all our power in this external structure of money, and therefore the worth of humanity lessens. This is why factories and factory farms exist. Sentient beings becomes products. Human welfare becomes secondary.

Those who are the closest to the money will always have a Gollum type relationship to it, which calls for surveillance, which calls for a need for surveillance of those who are surveilling, etc. (See 7)

9) Capitalism Disempowers Personal Will

The world is in debt to itself. When we are born into countries in debt, it creates a mindset as though we owe something, even if it’s not personally us who’s acquired the debt. When we owe, we are indentured to work. When we are indentured to work, we have less time to think for ourselves.

Profit incentives in social experiments have only been shown to raise productivity level with tasks such as factory line assembly, or other mindless work. However, people are more innovative in creative ingenuity when left to their own devices with the reward of freedom instead of money. The natural human state radiates genius and if we rid ourselves of the stress of needless competition, human potential would flourish exponentially.

Technological breakthroughs exist not because of capitalism but despite capitalism. The internet exists not because a corporation forced it into existence, but because of the human need for global inter-communication. Inevitable human expansion at its finest. It is not regulated and taxed to its fullest capacity only because of the non-physical nature of intellectual property.

10) Capitalism Promises Uniformity

In other words – booo-ring. How many times have you gone on vacation only to see the same effing KenTacoHut franchises littering the landscape? How many times have you gone out shopping for something unique… and found every store to carry the same knock off fashions? How many times have you tried something new at work and been told to: just stick to the protocol?

Sure, the world’s financial crisis has become exacerbated since WW1, since the derivatives spiraled out of control, etc. But going back even as far as the industrial revolution, people were made to involuntarily witness a transformation of their landscapes and lifestyles as mass production turned them into machines (I recommend reading the American classic: The Jungle), and even when gold was the currency fractional reserve lending was being practiced. Capitalism turns people into consumers, but worse it turns people into products. We are so much more complex than this.

Ok, so on the plus side, it’s nice sometimes that Starbucks has your favourite drink at every location on the planet. But are we willing to sacrifice variety, adventure, selection, and creativity for consistency? Maybe we are until we see the repercussions.

11) Capitalism is Delusional

Capitalism is not based on reality because it never started from a place of assessing our collective resources in total. It is based on ideas, not solid resources. Might we prosper from the resources of other planets one day? Yes, but not yet.

How does a capitalist system measure the total of its resources if it’s measuring with old systems? Capitalism measures energy in money – a concept.  A resource based economy relinquishes the game tokens and aims to preserve and equally distribute resources, releasing human innovation from the confines of lifetime enslavement so that we can function to our fullest capacity (a resource that capitalism does not even perceive and so therefore has not been able to exploit).

Capitalism does not see the world as an inseparable entity, it divides and conquers: and this is why it creates a war machine. War is the use of force, which is why capitalism and constant struggle are lovers.

So, can we reform capitalism? Tweak it into something more functional. Absolutely not.  There is no from of renovation that can make capitalism habitable because it was never intended as a long term sustainable system, and therefore we must lay a new foundation.

The point of a resource based economic system is abundance, where people don’t have to steal because they do not lack. It is not lack of resources that prevent widespread wealth – it is closed minds. Only when we diminish the power of money to zero will it be impossible for a small group of people to gain control over it. Only when we eliminate poverty will people no longer feel compelled to fearfully hoard and preemptively strike each other down for land and wealth. Only when we distribute widespread elective education can people become mentally sound enough to make better decisions.

When asked on a university exam which was more important: the needs of the individual or the needs of the collective, I argued that the needs of the individual ARE the needs of the collective. The systems ARE the people. When the people are secure, the systems will be, too.

Christmas Among Meateaters

How Can Vegans Remain True to Themselves at Christmas?

I’m not writing this post as a prescriptive because I truly don’t know how a vegan can glide through the holidays when celebrating them with meateaters. When I look at the Christmas cacaphony of bacon fryers and leather handbags and turkeys, I see the places they came from and this doesn’t make me feel like celebrating.

Instead I will post a conversation between myself and a family member about our attempts to reconcile the lifestyle clash. When meateaters argue with vegans, it can be exhausting, especially for the vegan because they’ve probably had this convo a million times before. Ring any (jingle) bells?

Meateater VS Vegan – Conflict @ Christmas

M = Meateater

V = Vegan

V = I appreciate the efforts you make to provide vegan options and gifts, but please realize that when you gift everyone else twice as much of the opposite kinds of gifts, and feed everyone else ten times the amount of non-vegan food, I feel upset because I see all the violence it took to obtain those products.

M = Well, those are your beliefs. I don’t get why you have to ‘push’ your ‘beliefs’ on the rest of us.

V = The nature of and prevalence of factory farming is statistically documented. It has nothing to do with a belief – this is what’s happening in our world right now. I’m speaking the truth and being myself.

M = You are making me feel bad when you say something about gifts such as the PiggyWiggy bacon fryer.

V = I am not ‘making’ you feel anything, but I am drawing attention to the violence behind this gift.

M = Well why do you have to do it in an attacking way?

V = The slaughter of pigs is the ultimate act of attack. If you perceive someone mentioning this as an attack, then maybe you are creating that experience out of your own inclination to defend this consumer choice.

M = How do you know that the animals suffer?

V = Would you suffer if you were strapped to the floor of a gestation crate and raped over and over until your innards spilled out of your body?

M = Well have you gone and actually witnessed this yourself? You just watch these videos and assume it’s true.

V = I could go into the factory farms but then I could be prosecuted as a terrorist according to new U.S. law.

M = Why do you need to try to change us? We don’t force you to eat meat.

V = I am not trying to change you. I am simply sharing my experience with you and the essence of who I am. Changing you would be a waste of my time, if you choose to grow for yourself that’s great.

Also, me reminding you of the violence in animal products is very different from you pressuring me to support violence.

M = What if we don’t want to change?

V = We are always changing no matter what – the only question is in what way. On a personal note, if you learn about animal agriculture and simply don’t care – I don’t get that.

M = I care about other things that you don’t care about: poverty, homelessness, various charities, etc.

V = I care about those things, too. If I was doing something directly to cause these things and I had other choices, I would choose the least harmful options.

M = So you really don’t want to change us?

V = Would I love to live in a non-violent world? Yes. Am I going to go around begging individuals to change? No.

M = Can’t you just be pleasant?

V = I can be a lot of positive things. But I’m not willing to silence myself.

I’m going to stop there because it’s excruciating. I would like to point out though that it’s not the veganism that tears families apart – it’s the violence behind the animal products. Just like it wasn’t women’s rights that tore families apart, it was the sexist laws of that time. Just because an animal based diet is currently more popular, doesn’t mean it’s natural or normal.

Christmas can be a difficult time for those who have seen the truth behind the animal products the ‘mainstream’ chooses to purchase because we are simply unable to appreciate or celebrate them.

Vegan Xmas Options

a) celebrate Xmas among meateaters and shut up, feeling as though you are a  phony

b) celebrate Xmas among meateaters and speak out, probably causing defensive responses from others

c) spend Xmas with vegans (but be guilt tripped by meateating friends and family who you’re ignoring)

d) volunteer at a homless shelter and serve people… turkey

So it’s kind of a no-win sitch. But it’s all good, because it’s not about us anyway in that our feelings of exclusion and alienation pale in comparison to the atrocities faced every day by animal slaves.

Foster Gamble’s ‘Thrive’ – WIN or FAIL?

Where the Movie ‘Thrive’ Fails to Thrive

Foster Gamble, renegade heir of the animal-torturing Procter & Gamble corp, has made his own version of the Zeitgeist trilogy with an extraterrestrial spin.

Below are a list of WINS and FAILS that I’ve compiled to gauge the overall success of the film. Generally, the first 3/4 of this film is a win, and the last quarter is a fail. Not an F, but a D-.

The end of Thrive is reminiscent to that of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, except in that film the solutions came rolling down like credits in a tiptoeing, whistling, thumb twiddling don’t-ask-me slink away.

WIN

• Names are named. Thrive pinpoints the main elites causing the global fear-based decision making structure in what is labeled the Global Domintation Agenda: the Rockfellers, Morgans, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and their buddies. The film explains how this small group of people control money, food, water (trying to), education, media, healthcare, etc. Well done Thrive for not being afraid to call the hoarders out.
• Blame is diffused through explanation. Any time people lean on the concept of ‘evil’ as an explanation for violence, whether economic, physical, or other, we regress back to the polarity of the US government, the bible, or a Star Wars movie. Truth is far more complicated than simply: some people are just evil. Thrive explains that those hoarding power are doing so out of fear. Fear of freedom, scarcity, and change.
• Exposing the appropriation of the term ‘conspiracy theory’. It seems as though anyone who commits to dissent these days is termed a conspiracy theorist. Conspiracy theorist is the new terrorist. So I’m glad that Thrive exposes the negative connotations this term has garnered so people can feel more comfortable about thinking critically. Remember critical thinking? That skill we were taught in school that gets us fired from jobs in the real world?
• Thrive has a fact checking page on their website. Point.
• Thrive does make one or two good points in its otherwise weak attempt to solve the world’s problems, with statements such as this: “It doesn’t work to build an healthy system on top of an unhealthy one.” True that. (So why does Thrive go on to try to bandaid job the system we’ve got now?)

FAIL

• Thrive’s main failure is in its proposed solutions. While the Gambles’ hearts are in the right place, they lack the vision to picture actual economic alternatives and therefore they aim low, telling viewers to work within the monetary system, when the monetary system IS the problem. Bank locally? Vote for better people? These systems are already corrupted – time to start fresh.
• No mention of the Venus Project. Hello! There is already a much more cutting edge solution out there for all the problems Thrive presents. Could Thrive not even comment on a resource based economy? Even to say why it isn’t feasible? If Gamble missed this biggie, what other essentials did he omit from his ambitious film?
• After showing numerous shots of people starving and living in poverty, the makers of Thrive warn that watching the film without paying for it is immoral. Isn’t it more important to get their message out than to expect immediate reward? The filmmakers seem to be stuck in a place of rich kid entitlement on this issue.
• Thrive’s golden rule is to practice non-violation… but what exactly does this mean? What about violating the wealth of the elite hoarders and redistributing it? And don’t we have to violate current laws in order to exercise free speech these days? What about the people who pay more for water than Coke who might violate the copyright laws to watch this movie? Gamble then tries to interchange the term with non-aggression. Let me help, you Thrive – the term you’re reaching for is: non-violence. But to be fair, for humans to practice non-violence, this requires a shift from animal agriculture, the violence-based system that nourishes most of the people on the planet.
• Fail squared: the soundtrack. Please make it stop.

All in all, Thrive is well organized and accurate on many points but its main flaw is that it has an economic blind spot.

Instead of spending a bit longer to search for solutions to the problems it presents, Thrive rushes the project and instructs viewers to follow a list of biblical commandments that basically amount to recycling to attempt to save the environment.

In my humble opinion, the film would have been more cohesive if it had spent longer examining its main breakthrough concept: the torus, explaining what direct solutions a functioning torus could offer.

May the torus be with you.

Jerry Hicks Dies of Leukemia

What the Death of Jerry Hicks Means for ‘Abraham’

I recently learned that Jerry Hicks, of the infamous Abraham-Hicks empire, was suffering from an advanced form of leukemia and on November 18, 2011 he passed. He was 89 years old, to the best of my knowledge, and his wife, Esther, is 30 years younger.

In the most honest eulogy I have heard from Esther, she admits that she has not fully grasped the idea of death. Normally Esther, speaking through Abraham, refuses to admit that she doesn’t know anything and it can be painful to listen to.

When the public discovered that Jerry Hicks had leukemia, Esther would not talk about it, stating that she did not want to draw negative energy to the circumstance, and that is where is I have always believed that Esther was getting it a little wrong: in order to move beyond the difficult, one must acknowledge the problem first in order to manifest otherwise – articulate to dissipate. Esther often silences people who come to her with problems, and has been doing so more in her later years.

Esther and Jerry Hicks have presented themselves to the world as highly spiritually evolved, ‘the happiest people you’ve ever met’. And so when Jerry Hicks began to suffer from leukemia, many questioned if the couple were really who they said they were.

Esther teaches that those who contract illness think illness and radiate illness, and therefore attract it – so why would Jerry have invited this illness? Could they not apply the law of attraction to heal Jerry, as they so often instructed others to do? Where was their best buddy Abraham as Jerry fell permanently out of the vortex?

(*The image above is, of course, not the entity of beings Abraham but the biblical Abraham, although it suits the situation in question perfectly.)

Is Abraham a Scam?

Many feel that Jerry’s final illness was the demise of the Abraham-Hicks empire – a fatal flaw in the product they’ve been pushing. I’ve known for a long time that Esther and Jerry’s personal agendas were getting meddled with their comprehension of the material. I have written several articles about their misinterpretation of animal suffering not to point fingers, but because Esther’s callous attitude about animals as beasts (alternately referring to them as friends when convenient) is damaging on a large scale level to listeners who elevate Esther to God-like.

But my intention here is not to bash Esther in her time of grieving (and Esther is about to discover that sadness and depression when experienced with consciousness can actually feel really good, defying her proposed linear scale of emotions).

My intention is to clarify that despite the inaccuracies in Esther/Abraham’s teachings (does it really matter who is who?), despite her recent lack of patience with followers, and her detachment from other sentient creatures on this planet, Esther has a gift and girlfriend makes a lot of sense a lot of the time. And the fact that the invincible Jerry died of leukemia does not falsify any of the the Abraham-Hicks teachings – it simply reminds people that he was human, just as Esther is.

Some have accused Esther of being trained by Jerry on what to say, or suggest that Esther bases all her material on the former Seth books (they’re completely different), but while Esther did not invent the law of attraction just as Newton did not invent gravity, she breaks down the law of attraction in a comprehensive, focused way that helps people learn (remember) the logistics behind deliberate creation. She is extremely articulate and accurate, and while not the most touchy-feely-lovey person, she shows up and offers the knowledge inside her in a clear and concise way which many are able to connect with.

Does it matter where she gets the knowledge from? Only if you follow it on blind faith. I never accept knowledge unless I’ve given it a spin for myself, and you are free to test out any one of Esther’s gems of wisdom, which couldn’t be summarized in one article.

Law of Attraction Points that Remain Solid

• We live in a vibrational universe.
• Focus on what you want and the rest will fall away.
• Feel the new reality. Emotion creates pathways.
• Go to a positive vibration (the Vortex) and THEN create.
• Play with general and specific manifestations based on which creates a more positive emotion.
• Negative emotion indicates resistance.
• Deliberate co-creation is the essence of our true identities.
• Why? Why do anything? Joy. (*I believe joy can be present in many emotions. I can be thoroughly satisfied and in awe looking at something intriguingly dark.)

I value the mental work outs that Esther offers. It is one thing to know these handy tricks, but quite another to remember them, and just as our muscles must remember how to be strong through perpetual exercise, so does our spiritual compass if we want to use it with precision.

It is entirely possible to be disappointed in Esther for her unwillingness to examine her highly destructive relationship with animal souls, and to also be completely in tune with other material she presents. If we throw out the baby with the bathwater (reaching for an updated metaphor… if we throw out the email with the spam, if we throw out the show with the commercials – never mind) then we are shooting the messenger without hearing out the message.

Just as people want to discredit former CIA asset, Susan Lindauer, for her nervous (some think hysterical) laugh and her inappropriate jubilation when discussing serious matters (which she explains as a form of  being reborn after a year of imprisonment by the US government), then we are missing out on the testimony of an insider of the US government who admits high-level government involvement. Likewise, if we discredit Esther Hicks for her animal cruelty, being a jerk, and not always knowing when to admit that she doesn’t know, we are missing out on her valuable bag of tricks – that can essentially be used to fix all of Esther’s flaws – in ourselves, others, and the world.

*I also wanted to add that while this post focuses on the living half of Jerry and Esther’s unit, when I read that Jerry passed, I felt a moment of loss.

Veganism and Mental Health

How Does Our Mental Health Affect our Attitudes Towards Veganism?

I’ve already touched on the subject of whether veganism promotes mental health. I think it does. But I wanted to examine the topic from the other angle: how does mental health relate to BECOMING vegan?

I would define good mental health as stability – one neither falls into depressions, or loses one’s temper, but also has the ability to feel their feelings to the extent they want to. Mental health is resilience – an ability to look at situations straight on, bounce back from failures, and learn how to achieve emotional balance. But mental health goes beyond emotional health, to intellectual health – the ability to allow new ideas to enter the mind and jostle our pre-conceived notions as we strive to be completely honest with ourselves.

I would argue that poor mental health makes it much more difficult for people to become vegan. Follow this train of thought:

Life sucks.

My life sucks.

I am not connected to people.

My relationships can’t fulfill me.

All I have are my creature comforts.

My creature comforts are what I know.

I know what I like.

I don’t want to not like these things anymore or I would have nothing.

Please stop trying to take away these creature comforts – they are all I have.

VS

Life is good.

My life is continually expanding and progressing.

I have dynamic connections with people.

I’m learning and growing with others in my life.

I have so much abundance and so many thing I love to do.

My creature comforts are just bonuses.

I know what I like so far, but since I’m learning and growing these things may develop over time, too.

I have so much to give. I want to share myself in the most positive ways possible.

I want everyone to experience the joy I feel.

Please show me how I can live to my maximum ability. I am open to change.

Depression

When I was depressed, I had given up on people. No one could understand my pain and so I couldn’t be myself around anyone. All I had were the small things. Milk chocolate, ice cream, etc. If I had been able to maintain a healthy connection to others and to my creativity, those things would have stayed small things and not taken on more weight to relieve me of my sadness. When you truly have a life, your habits fade away as details that can be changed.

Cravings

When you don’t know your inner power, you don’t know the extent to which you can exert it. You believe that people and objects have power over you. You might go back to a dysfunctional ex over and over again. You might refer to meat as ‘my meat’, indicating an inseparable intimate relationship with the meat you’ve been eating – it’s yours, but it also ‘has you’.

Cravings are what your mind thinks of to soothe it based on neural pathways that you have created. If you think over and over again: sad>milk chocolate, then your brain will reach for the milk chocolate unless you reset the habit. As for chocolate itself, we’re SOL, it’s imprinted in our brain coding.

But just as people in Japan eat things that North Americans may find disgusting (eg. soft boiled fetal duck), we often love what we know and when we understand that we have the power to transcend tastes we were trained to have, then we are free to make ethical choices.

The BodyMind Connection

When our minds are sound, we want the best for our bodies because we see them as one. When in our minds we want to cause no harm, our bodies will carry out this desire and will refuse to be nourished by violence. Clarity of mind leaves no room for inaccuracies in our ethical choices.

I know many spiritual people who radiate positive energy and who devote themselves to living purely, but when it comes to their diets they throw up their hands as victims of a system where everything is made by slaves anyway.

We can’t always control who is indirectly harmed by our purchases, but we can control purchases in which people and animals are directly harmed.

Animal Products as an Addiction

Most of my formerly craved animal products are now pretty gross to me: red meat – haven’t touched it since I was a teenager and I imagine it would be hard to chew and hard to digest. Chicken? All I think of is biting down on a vein in a McNugget, which happened to me several times during my McCruel youth. Milk – sexist animal secretions, eggs – don’t necessarily have to be ‘cruel’ (say for instance if you rescued a chicken from a hatchery) but they can be pretty gross in a multitude of ways.

However some products in which milk is only an ingredient can be hard to forget about. There’s something about a Snickers bar that gives me a brain rush. This could be so easily solved in vegan chocoate bars were easier to get our hands on, like at Nice Shoes.

Vegan Chocolate Bars

An addiction is a perceived dependence of something outside our ourselves to achieve a positive inner state. Once we realize how to get the same effect from within, the pattern usually ceases. I used to do ecstasy, acid, coke, smoke weed, drink, etc. but I feel so good on a day to day basis now that I don’t have the need to. I’m not judging drugs at all as they can be useful tools, but for me, I have outgrown them.

It is not the animal products in themselves that give us the feelings of pleasure or satisfaction, it is ourselves. So as we gain self-awareness, and open our minds to revising all that we’ve been told about food pyramids and food chains, our mental and physical health inevitably become stronger.

Whether you choose to go vegan to get happy, or get happy to help yourself go vegan doesn’t really matter.

Happy Meateaters?

Many people will argue that they have wonderful lives and consider themselves happy carnivores. I know many smiley, happy, rather amazing people who aren’t bothered about their animal-based diets. But, when you reveal to them the behind-the-scenes of their diets they are not so happy to hear it. They become excusatarians – defensive and unwilling to learn more. The information you’re sharing doesn’t fit with their happy lives, so they reject it.

True happiness can’ t be tipped so easily. I think someone strong and confident would be concerned that their happiness was coming at the expense of others. And they would want to iron out this area of friction so they could get back to enjoying whatever happiness they could.

When it comes to those who support animal agriculture – ignorance is bliss, but true bliss – bliss that can not be exposed as causing suffering – comes only from learning of the damage being done and then choosing otherwise.

ExtraTerrestrial

The Aliens are Coming

And going. They’ve been around for years.

Not the really bad Katy Perry song with original ultra-douche, Kanye, rapping about alien probes.

Intelligent life beyond this planet.

As a down-to-Earth person (not the greatest attribute when you consider it), I have been taught that aliens are where rational people draw the line. The line between the crazy and the sane. But what are UFOs but unidentified flying objects? And what is an alien but a life form from another planet?

The new movie Thrive, discusses a perpetual motion machine called a torus, which is basically a self-sustaining vortex of energy. The film suggests that this model of energy is present and functioning in civilizations beyond Earth, and that clues throughout Earth’s history have offered evidence of this 64 node Gollum-coveted ring of fire.

A friend also recently showed me The Disclosure Project, which features 400 testimonies of former officials who have had encounters with UFOs or related, formally gathering to approach congress about the de-weaponization of space (because you know humans like to say hi by setting things on fire). Some of these witnesses discuss watching nuclear weapons become dismantled by hovering UFOs and report seeing UFO crashes with passengers inside (some humanoid, others humanoid but taller).

Perspective 1:  Hallucinating attention-seeking yokels.

Perspective 2: Only 1 of the 10 000 + sightings in question needs to be real to demonstrate that intelligent life beyond this planet has beat us to making contact.

How egocentric would we have to be to assume that if alien contact is made we will be the ones to make it?

The Disclosure Project explains that the suppression of numerous eyewitness accounts of UFO sightings are due  to the military industrial complex—that sustaining the current trillion dollar systems of energy in place is why the public is not made privy to this information.

So let’s assume that other life forms have been in contact with Earthlings. If that’s the case, then it’s probably happened more than once in our 4.54 billion years. And if it’s happened more than once, then, I don’t mean to creep you out, but is it so far fetched that aliens are watching us right now?

And if this torus technology that potentially exists is more non-physical than physical, then couldn’t life from other planets also be more non-physical than physical? What are the barriers between human and alien thought? Esther and Jerry Hicks’ translation of ‘Abraham’ is one such example. A plane of thought comprised of non-physical beings who communicate to humans. I mean… where ARE all these ideas coming from?

Our mental barriers could be the main thing blocking us from communication with extra terrestrial life forms. Is the future of our planet really based on the simple “if you build it they will come” paradigm? Wouldn’t that be laughably cliche?

Is there a collective human yearning to make contact with life from other planets, just like how a lonely individual yearns for company? Then why aren’t we attempting to better connect with the other life forms we have on this planet now?

Top 6 Myths About Anarchy

Too Pre-Occupied to Occupy?

The Resistance to the Resistance

Blaming the 1% for the vast disparity of wealth distribution is like blaming Hitler for the  Nazi regime: if millions hadn’t backed his views he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.

The 1% are comfortable with their wealth and feel they have earned at least most of it, through hard work, or cunning smarts, or being a trophy wife.

What we need to examine now are those among us who, even when the cage doors have been flung open, choose to stay in their cages.

Why are those of us in the most desperate economic situations siding against the Occupy movement?

In an organic nutshell, they are afraid and confused. So let’s break down what anarchy is and isn’t:

1) Anarchy is chaos

Many picture society after anarchy as somewhat like Biff’s futuristic gun-toting casino world in Back the Future II. No laws, everyone is a vigilante, you could get shot at any time.

Anarchism is not about everyone running wild and nothing getting done. It is about decentralizing the power and distributing it equally among the people so that we are living the lives we choose, not the lives others tells us we must just to survive.

There are still systems.

There are still responsibilities.

There are still manners.

We will always be units of a collective and there will always be compromises to make. The question is what type of collective that will be.

2) Anarchy is communism

Many people, including myself, fear that an anarchic takeover would include a loss of personal rights and freedoms for the greater good.

But how much power do you have now over your country’s decisions? The only power you have is to vote for someone else to represent you, so that you can perpetually cross your fingers that this person might maybe have some shred of influence over a government that doesn’t really have power anyway because it’s funded by private institutions.

Once these private institutions (big banks) are taken down, then the discussion can begin anew.

There is no need to fear sharing if there is always enough to go around.

There is no need to fear equality in decision making if we are an intelligent nation.

There is no need to fear a loss of individuality if we collectively value individuality.

3) Anarchy is gonna mess up my life

Many people enjoy their lives. Good news! We look at our loved ones and favourite sports and activities and shows and music and clothes and art and places and homes and pets, etc. and we think: calm down, shit disturbers – life is not so bad. “Sure, the government may be plummeting towards collapse, but I have a lot in my life to be appreciative of – can’t I just focus on that?”

Yes. Keep doing that.

But also pay attention to this movement and what role it is calling you to play.

You can still live your lives as this transformation takes place. Keep playing the violin as the Titanic goes down. But don’t deny that shit IS going down. The more people pay attention to the Occupy movement NOW, the faster all the drama will be over.

If you are above the Occupy movement, it’s precisely your attention that Occupy is trying to capture.

*Now – imagine all those small pleasures possible within a world that is not in debt to itself with 1/6 of its inhabitants starving to death and the rest of them eating away at the Earth’s resources like a cancer. You can live your lives on or off of a sinking ship: which do you choose?

4) Anarchy is dangerous

Many have seen the black block and mistaken them for ninjas, or seen ‘A’s spraypainted onto the places they get their favourite mocha frappuccinos, and felt that this behaviour is too extreme for them to relate to. Fair enough. We have been taught that vandalism is a crime and it took a while for me to understand that destruction of property is not violence (unless it hurts someone in the process).

But while some choose these methods to relay their concerns, others practice other types of resistance. Anything from standing their ground in the face of police presence to documenting the movement, or donating to it.

You don’t have to stand beside those whose tactics you don’t agree with to put forth the same message: the corporate oppression of our governments needs to end.

Show dissent in a way that feels comfortable to you, but do not use the extreme methods of others as an excuse not to act.

5) Anarchy doesn’t solve anything

My grandmother recently told me that Calgary has ‘squatters’ now. When I explained the economic situation that inspired their presence, her reaction was: that’s not the way to solve things, you should just go through government. This is a popular sentiment among those who pride themselves on being law-abiding citizens.

When has standing in the street ever solved anything? Well there was that small historic moment when women got the vote. And pretty much every other radical social change in the history of the planet.

The laws and law enforcement currently in place are there to protect decisions that have already been made by the faulty government, so it makes no sense to go through them to cause economic and social change. Makes more sense to go around them.

To those who look down on the Occupy protesters who take to the streets as wasting their time, acknowledge that at the very least we are talking about their presence.

Conversation started.

6) Anarchy is for the young

Many people look at those participating in the Occupy movement and feel that it’s the flower children of the 70s revisited, kids going through their rebellious phase before they realize that it’s better to simmer down and make the best of the ‘real world’.

Look more closely at those involved. It is not just the young (or the mentally ill and drug addicted – although I don’t see why their opinions are not just as valid, lucid or not), it is people from all walks of life – the educated, the uneducated, those who have been to war and those who haven’t. Young/old, male/female/other, gay/straight, all races.

The only ones missing are the rich. And they are participating, too, from a distance.

They are the audience.

The Vegan Elite: The Other 1%

Are Vegans the Human 2.0?

There is much ado about vegans thinking they’re better than everyone else due to the astute attention they pay to food systems and the environment. But are vegans really ‘better’ than everyone else? (As in the ‘other’ 99%— not the hardworking, low-balled taxpayers, but the 99% of the population who eats animals?)

Let’s take a look at evolution. Evolution is the concept of more desirable traits gradually being carried on as useless traits are left to disappear. Its essence lies in change. Vegans change themselves by exchanging dominant animal-based dietary patterns for new plant-based ones. But is this a more desirable trait in terms of survival? Will vegans eventually replace meateaters?

If you research the environmental impact of a vegan diet versus an animal-based diet – veganism makes environmental sense. If the world made a collective change to a vegan diet, humans would have less environmental impact and be able to feed more of ourselves  (not even touching on the subject of how animals are treated). But until society collectively sees the effects of the environmental impact of animal industries, those who are short-sighted may not choose to change.

Health-wise, Forks Over Knives effectively shows how most diseases can be linked to an animal-based diet. So you could envision animal consumers dying out as their vegan counterpart thrive, but as long as animal-based consumers live long enough to procreate, this in no way dictates that vegans will evolve past those who choose to eat animals and their secretions.

Will the human race naturally evolve into a plant-based diet when resources start running out, land is scarce, and we are collectively suffering from diseases of over-consumption? Sure, it’s possible. May take a while, though. The current economic system is designed to perpetuate itself, not to constantly update to seek new, more desirable ways to implicate human participation and lessen environmental waste. In other words: the system exists to sustain your suffering – it does not update itself unless it is forced to.

Now, let’s take a look at technology. Technology exists to make things easier. To automate systems to free up time so that we are able to spend it doing things we actually want to do. Although sometimes, it works backwards, making us a slave to it.

Good technology simplifies. If you have a MacBook Pro or similar, you may like it because its battery lasts longer and it’s generally more efficient than the sloppy, choppy PC.

So… so far we’ve figured out that:

• Vegan require less resources to live. (*see above)
• Vegans require (collectively) less health care as they avoid diseases linked to cholesterol and excess animal proteins.

So therefore vegans function on less and need less maintenance, but do they also function better? What is better anyway?

Let’s recklessly define BETTER as:

• Happier
• More productive
• More conscious (of ourselves, the human race, and the planet)

Well, I can tell you from personal experience that adjusting my diet to not including suffering animals feels amazing. It keeps me pretty karmically clear. Sure, I have small obstalces here and there to face, but in the big picture, I’m not the one requesting these huge sick systems of human and animal exploitation into existence and that feels GOOD. This clears up room for me to apply that positive self-esteem to daily challenges. What guilt are animal consumers stifling and projecting onto others?

What about other vegan people I know? Honestly, opening your eyes to the bright truth can sting, so a lot of vegan people I know have challenging lives that involve a lot of direct action and therefore conflict, but I can also tell you that ignoring these oppressive sick systems would be a lot more difficult than speaking out and fighting back.

Are vegans more productive? Everyone defines productivity differently. At times I think vegan people get caught up in defining themselves by their diets or their causes and forget that they have other flavors of creativity – that they are more than just their ethics, but generally, vegan people are active. They don’t lie at home and hide (well, sometimes we all do), they don’t bite their tongues much, and while they may be carefully productive (trying not to cause harm in the process) they are certainly as productive as ‘normal’ people, if not more.

More conscious… ? Well this one’s simple. One diet reflects a desire to live as non-violently as possible, the other diet reflects violence (that strives to dissociate itself from its violent nature). I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but I think we can all agree that if those with animal product based diets could continue to eat how they’re eating and not harm any animals in the process – they would.

Ideally none of us really want to cause pain, suffering, mutilation, isolation, confinement, rape, bloodshed, and death. One diet allows us to live in line with these values, the other doesn’t.

So in conclusion, are the 1% of the population that consists of vegans ‘better’ that their animal product consuming counterparts?

Yes.

But vegans don’t want to be the 1%. They want to be the 100%!

Great, I’ll see you in the comments section.

The Law of Compassion

Another Weak Attempt from Esther Hicks

at Justifying Animal Suffering

In watching an animal themed ‘Abraham’ video on You Tube the other day by Esther Hicks, I was once again disappointed to hear Esther Hicks referring to animals as ‘beasts’ and trying to strip them of their likeness to humans.

She told a story of a hen whom she named Henny Penny and explained how she was so sweet and loving, then a wonderful mother to her chicks, and then when the chicks grew up, she pecked each one on the head and made them make their own way.

Esther Hick’s point was to show that animals are really not like humans, suggesting that a human mother would never do this to her child, and therefore when we see animals as having human qualities, we are simply imposing our own humanity onto them.

I object to this faulty logic in two main points.

1) Humans ARE like Animals

I can tell you that when I turned 18, it went from being ‘our’ family home to ‘my parents’ home, followed by a barrage of ‘what are you going to do with your life’, ‘move out’, ‘get a job or pay us rent’, etc. This post is not to judge my parents, although there are harsh and gentle ways of helping your kids through this transition. I could also point out that a few of my friends whose parents over-supported their kids through this transitional period ended up with kids who had drug and alcohol problems, depression, or self-esteem problems.

My point is: on some level, it’s normal for parents to ‘peck their young on the head’ to push them out the door. The more successful the parents are in doing this right, the better the relationship with their kids will be afterwards, but in some way, all parents (whether chicken or human) must go there.

2) Animals ARE like Humans

“When they are separated from their families, friends, or human companions, cows grieve over the loss. Researchers report that cows become visibly distressed after even a brief separation from a loved one. Cows are especially dedicated to their young and the bond formed between a mother and her calf remains long after the baby has grown to adulthood. Separation causes them tremendous stress and agitation. If mother and calf are separated by a fence, the mother will wait for her calf, even through harsh conditions like intense heat or cold weather, hunger and thirst. Cows have even been known to break fences and walk miles to be reunited with calves that were sold at auction. One can imagine the trauma a dairy cow must feel when her calf is taken from her shortly after birth. It’s well known to farmers but rarely discussed that mother cows continue to frantically call and search for their babies for days after the calves have been sold off to veal farms.

Not surprisingly, studies have found that cows recognize and respond to kind treatment from humans. Edmund Pajor of Purdue University said that cows will actually produce significantly more milk when they are spoken to gently than they do when shouted at and handled roughly. According to Purdue’s findings, it doesn’t take much for the cows to feel badly – they reacted poorly to even a simple slap on the rump meant to keep them moving. Cows don’t forget being hurt and seem to hold grudges not only against other cows, but also against people who have hurt them or their family members.”

Global Action Network

Esther Hicks contiually tries to make the point that even if every human were to go veg, animals would still eat animals (forgetting that many animals don’t eat other animals). But why does this matter? She says that animals do not have the ability to reason like humans, implying that there is no point in humans bothering to use reason in the way we interact with animals. But Esther always lectures to not worry about what others are doing, that the only thing that matters is if YOU feel good. So who cares what the animals do? It’s about what we do, as a collective human race, and as individuals.

Straight up: Esther Hicks’ handicap in addressing any and all compassionate people who come to her with questions about animals is in my opinion based on her inability to consider giving up meat and other animal products. She reasons that animals don’t feel pain in the way that humans do, and purports that that this knowledge is coming to her from Abraham.

I would challenge Esther Hicks to examine – then why does it make you FEEL  uncomfortable to watch animals being slaughtered? Isn’t it all about how you FEEL? Why do you, Esther, eat other people’s chickens and not your own? (as she admitted in another lecture). And how can you, Esther, justify that animal agriculture is creating widespread famine and environmental destruction? Would these not be dips in the emotional guidance scale that inspire us to set forth rockets of desire that in turn create a better reality? Why do you never remind people of the law of attraction when it comes to animals, Esther? You try to make people feel helpless on this topic. Just accept it, you instruct. But all the rest, you can change on a vibrational level. All except this.

Sorry, Esther. You’re busted.

Animal Rights Psychos

Why Animal Rights Activists are “Crazier than the Rest”

I chose Brigitte because she came up first under crazy animal rights activist. And she's rad.

Someone recently remarked to me something I’ve heard before, along the lines of: “why are animal rights activists so (effin) crazy? You know your crazy is giving the movement a bad name”.

Allow me to explain.

An 8 Point Guide to Understanding Crazy Animal Rights Activists

1) The voice of the voiceless

What would one say who was made to endure a lifetime of confinement in filthy, crowded living conditions, unable to even turn around, separated from their peers and offspring, parts of their body hacked off with no painkillers, humiliated by being hung upside down, or shaved, or castrated, pumped full of drugs just to keep them alive, sick and dying from lack of care, abused by numb, begrudging workers, treated as products from birth until death, raped, anally and vaginally electrocuted, and then killed sloppily and unceremoniously?

What would these voices say?

They would be upset. They would be angry. They would be sad. They would feel disrespected. Betrayed. Lonely. And hysterical. How is it that we are made to face such atrocities? They would ask.

This voice would demand answers and change.

This is what the collective animal rights voice calls for.

2) Until humanity ceases to nourish itself from violence, violence will prevail

Some people find it ‘crazy’ that animal rights activists place animals ‘over’ people. But animal rights activists see the widespread, systematic animal abuse in our world as the root of all other problems.

The Tolstoy quote goes: “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.”

Animal rights activists do not place animals above people, they see them as equal (but different) to people in that they, too, have a right to live.

3) What is violence?

99.99% of animal rights activists are pacifists. We are so upset to see violence towards animals because we are disturbed by violence in general. Violence meaning physical and emotional harm and abuse to others. Violence does not mean: yelling and breaking stuff. Violence means gore. Expressing anger and sadness is not violence.

While animal rights activists may pay you a home visit to protest you testing a make up line on baby monkeys, we are not going to show up and torture you or murder you – that is exactly what we’re protesting against. And for those who think home demos are acts of intimidation, compare in contrast the animals in labs who do not have homes, who are kept in cages their entire lives in isolation, only to be taken out to have painful experiments performed on them. They don’t get to go home.

4) No measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society…

Animals rights activists usually adopt a vegan diet since it doesn’t make much sense to fight for some sentient beings and torture others. There is some discrepancy as to what veganism is among activists, which is okay, as most of us are on the same page about most things. But from a vegan standpoint, ARAs find themselves among a very small portion of the population, making us, for lack of better terms… freaks. We are used to being the odd ones out.

If we cared about what people thought of our unwillingness to consume products derived from suffering animals, we would throw in the towel. But clearly, we like it over here, and we are willing to give up being normal for inner well-being. So standing on street corners and being vocal are really just a few more steps in a direction we’re already confident in.

5) They’re not ‘beliefs’, they’re understandings

Nothing annoys me more than when people start talking about ‘my beliefs’. If you watch the footage, if you read the statistics, if you go to the factories and smell the putrid, rotting smell of death, you will know that factory farming is not a concept one needs to believe in for it to be true.

Animal rights is not something certain people engage in to be different; it is not something that defines us (just like some people like the colour blue, or fencing, or Buddhism, or clogs) – it is about paying attention to a mass component of the state of the world.

“It takes all kinds”, is a cop out used to explain that well, some people like to be vegetarian and others just like meat—we’re all different. No. While it takes all kinds, we don’t need to all be different in this sense. Just like we don’t need for there to be some murderers, some child molesters, some serial killers, and some normal people to provide a lovely rainbow of variety within society. We can all eat a plant-based diet and celebrate our millions of other differences. Meat is not part of anyone’s identity. Although some rednecks have no other personality traits, so they make websites and TLC shows about bacon fetishes and the extreme barbecuing of flesh.

6) You think we’re crazy? 

While animal rights activists stand outside with signs or megaphones, do crazy shit, or write controversial pieces, those who consume animal products willingly are actually signing the slip for horrific animal abuse to occur.

What’s more crazy? Standing on the street naked, or ripping the skin off an animal while it’s still alive? (Common practice in the fur industry)

What’s more crazy? Screaming at the top of one’s lungs in public, or hanging a cow upside down and slicing it open so its innards spill out while it’s still conscious?

What’s more crazy? Talking about the horrors of factory farming at Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or sticking your arm up a cow to impregnate it against its will and then putting its baby inside a dark box for the entirety of its life?

If you wear fur, if you eat meat, if you drink dairy – you are the reason why these acts of cruelty are happening. You are paying for these industries to exist. They exist only because of you.

7) The truth is persistent

When you feel good, you want to share it with others. Although there is a lot of misery expressed by animal rights activists, it is not our personal misery – it is misery that we are strong enough to know about and not take on ourselves.

The only reason that we are strong enough to persevere in looking at these images and teaching others about what goes on behind closed doors is because we are doing it from a place of confidence and strength. We feel good in our path. We feel good in our diets. We are not being vocal about animal suffering to ‘recruit you to our side’ like missionaries; we could care less about your inner beliefs. We just want you to know what’s actually going on. Someone else told us, and we, at our own pace, changed. We are so glad they told us.

Thank goodness a plant-based diet is a karmic superfuel or we wouldn’t have the energy to keeping doing this.

8) A bad name

Okay, part of the purpose of the animal rights movement is to educate and bring people together to form new, conscious communities. Excellent. The other part of the movement is to simply: stop the killing. By any means necessary (except violence).

So while it’s great to see a plethora of tactics being used, from PETA’s porn site to vegan potlucks and bake sales and leafletting at high schools, the other part of the movement is just as necessary. Making it known that animal abuse is politically incorrect. Setting free confined animals. Hitting these business where it hurts: the profits. These means of direct action have nothing to do with winning the support of the general public.

It’s a choice of getting in where you fit in. Joe Backwoods might not have the best people skills, but he may have a crowbar and some spraypaint to do some serious liberation for the ALF.

How Smart are You Compared to Others?

Are you Smarter than the People?

Vegan Blasphemy

Thou Shalt Not Procreate

There is an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) rule that goes with the vegan thing. And you know how I feel about rules. One lifestyle choice that many vegans seem to follow that doesn’t have anything directly to do with animals is the choice not to procreate.

Many of my vegan friends have waived their human right to have children in a belief that the world is already taxed by human overpopulation. I completely see where they’re coming from, I support their decisions, but for myself I do not believe that having no children will solve the problem of human population.

To me, moving away from the monetary system to equally distribute knowledge and wealth, allowing more advanced technology to monitor our resources, and of course, a planetary movement towards a vegan diet will be the larger solutions in solving this little problem of humans as Earth’s cancer.

I’m completely open in telling other vegans that I want to have a biological child (we’ll start with one…) And I have been judged for it with comments such as:

“Well I’m not vain enough that I need another of me running around in the world.”

“You don’t care? You don’t CARE? That’s what meateaters say.”

I have no problem defending my decision, since it wasn’t a decision – it has been a part of me since I can remember.  I have been learning how I’ll raise this child since I was a child. And I’m not going to let anyone’s freak fertility accidents, crazy Bible thumping super families (how many now and counting?), or even my own vegan community deter me from my future family.

Now, my vegan friends have obviously suggested: why not adopt? Adopt someone else’s child? Maybe. Eventually. But what I really want is to go through the whole experience myself. I want the unmatchable bond. It is the bond that we fight for when we advocate for cows – we cherish the mother/child relationship, we grieve when we see the mother being separated from her child. And not only that, but the experience of creating a life out of two people’s love is a beautiful concept that feels too good to be wrong. Is this an ideal? Yes. But a very tangible ideal that many get to experience.

For me, having a biologocial child is part of the FULL life experience. It is not this way for everyone. But the argument that: too many people have already had this FULL life experience and it is ruining the planet does not deter me from living my life and offering the life experience I enjoy to a new human.

If I were made to sacrifice this experience, I would honestly give up in life. I would not have the drive to create this new world we all want to live in. I would not be myself.

I could say that having a child is my way of passing on a new conscious being into world. Sure, whatever. That’s not why I want to do it. My child could end up a meateater, for all I know. (Fingers crossed not…)

Now, who wants to knock me up?

…in 5 years….maybe 10. Did I mention I have other big dreams, too? Well, vegans live longer, so I have lots of time.

Animal Rights Idol

Do Vegans Compete for Sainthood?

I win. You lose.

I have always found the animal rights community to be an extremely caring group of people where everyone is treated as equals. Sure, there are conflicts surrounding tactics, but even the activists who personally dislike one another can still work together for the movement. Just as we believe that animals can and should be treated equally to humans (though in some cases, as required, differently), the animal rights community has been a place where all hierarchies are put aside as we work to manifest a non-violent world.

Until the other day. I’m new to this whole Facebook thing, so I’m not sure about proper etiquette for ‘friend’ing people (although I have a personal policy to never unfriend anyone (unless they are trying to kill me, or sue me, or equivalent). And so carefully treading, I added Colleen Patrick Goudreau with a message passing on my previously mentioned compliment about her plenary speech. My basis for adding Colleen was that she has almost 5000 friends, and was also friends with a few of my friends. Clearly a popular lady sure to have some interesting discussions on her wall.

I received an almost immediate reply from a woman managing her account who called herself Colleen’s “Fan Manager”, saying something along the lines of: thanks for the compliment but what makes you think Colleen has time to receive it? This is a PERSONAL account. If you want to praise her, go to the fan page. She also mentioned that Colleen has been trying to cut down on her friends (!?) and turn them into fans, so any further friends were out of the question. Seriously? I was having images of the Queen of Narnia turning her subjects into statues.

The first thing that came to mind was: hmm, a compliment does not a fan make. I’m nobody’s fan; it’s not my style. So I replied that I prefer to communicate with people as equals.

Now. I have nothing against Colleen – quite the opposite. I could never bring myself to hate any animal rights activist. But this experience caused me to question: is animal rights a popularity contest? Is it ever okay to use our success in the movement as a way to promote ourselves for personal gain? Before I continue, I’d like to state (again) that this is not a personal rant against Colleen. That would be ridiculous; I mean how awesome is it that she reaches so many people? It is a post meant to explore our motivations (and possible distractions) as individuals within the animal rights movement.

So – is an animal rights activist higher status because she’s published and on TV? Or do the animal rights activists in masks setting free caged animals have just as much of an impact on the movement? I believe that it is extremely important to maintain a level of equality within the movement or we risk becoming ourselves exactly what we are trying save the animals from being: products. 

If we are writing books, and speaking publicly, and creating brands for ourselves with any intention in mind other than helping the animals, then aren’t we just emulating the icky media-saturated world that already exists where people follow blindly the lead of those who pretend to know and be more?

This is exactly why I do not only advocate for change in animal rights, but for the end of all oppressive systems (ie. Veganarchy).

I’ve had the chance to meet Will Potter and Nathan Runkle, other busy, successful “famous” activists. They didn’t emit the same “untouchable” vibe, and that affirmed for me my lifelong place in this movement. Joanne Chang, Glenn Gaetz, and Brian Vincent are some of Vancouver’s most known animal rights activists and are all media figures… and yet they are totally accessible. approachable. “touchable” (hey now, not in that way). But my experience with Colleen’s “fan manager”? (Again, really?) sort of reminded me of elementary school. “Oh, sorry, I already told Steph, Lexy, and Megan they could eat lunch with me… there’s not really enough room for any more people, ie. you.” (Hey – we all have to learn that we’re not followers somehow).

Many vegans hold themselves above “mainstream” people as being more intelligent and more evolved (don’t lie). And this holier than thou attitude can also translate amongst our own community. Let’s not measure our successes. Let’s not develop complexes about who we think we are. Let’s remember that in order to treat the animals as equals, we must always treat each other as equals, too.

In a movement where the process often depends on some who lead and others who follow, let’s not label those who follow as fans, or even as followers. Our ideas would mean nothing if others did not gather to listen to them.

You’re Vegan, I’m Sorry

Veganism Feels Good

A few of my vegan friends at Pigs for Peace in Seattle

So how’s that working for you? I’m often asked by curious people, understandably resistant to the concept, but genuinely curious.

Some people might go vegan overnight, but most don’t. I was raised on weekly steak dinners, hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, baloney, and other lunch meats that stick to the wall, electric cheese, and yes even veal, as I’ve mentioned. My favourite vegetable was pickles. I was Albertan and my parents were born in the 50s, what can I say.

Honestly, when I went vegan, I was doing it out of guilt. I felt horrible for the cows and chickens. I couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore. I wouldn’t want to be treated the way they were, so I stopped after attending my first foie gras demo with Liberation BC.  What I didn’t know was that going vegan was going to change my whole way of looking at food. Cutting out animal products was essentially cutting out junk food. I couldn’t so easily reach for a chocolate bar, a bag of chips, ice cream anymore – I had to read ingredients. I had to take a moment to think before I ate.

It was hard for me to give up dairy. I let Glenn Gaetz in on my process, explaining to him how I’d cut it down to 2ce a week, 1nce a week, etc. And, bless him, he didn’t (outwardly) judge my process. I told him how it wasn’t working because I’d buy a tub of yogurt and have to eat it every day for a week just to finish it. But having vegan friends, they showed me alternatives. Have you tried soy ice cream with granola? Coconut ice cream? What about vegan yogurt? Go to this website, try this recipe, shop here. Meat has been flesh to me for a long time. Inedible. Sick. But dairy used to be a craving in its many forms. Now it’s just a liquid stomachache.

The way I’ve changed my diet now… it’s incredible. I eat salads and smoothies every day. I experiment with recipes. I eat a lot more raw foods. I eat more organic and fresh than ever. And bonus – I eat no misery.

Good times @ Pigs for Peace

When I do eat junk food now, I feel AWFUL. I ate a whole pack of Twizzlers last week (which are vegan – props for that, just don’t eat the whole mothaf-in bag) while feeling sorry for myself about somethingr’other, and it seriously ruined my whole day. My body rejects junk now. I am the pinnacle of health, with indulgences of course in moderation. And I love food more than ever. I feel so accomplished to love healthy food. I did it! It’s like learning to love a good man and not the asshole who’s going to use and abuse you. Sometimes you have to reach beyond what you were conditioned to choose.

Now, my body loves me. I love my body. And karma loves me, too. I feel like I need to eat this way for another 4-5 years now until my cells entirely regenerate to full vegan form. Then I’ll full-on morph into… I don’t know, a mermaid or a cartoon character or something.

When I only had one or two friends who were vegan, I thought they were freakish and annoying, with their little self-promotions here and there. Now, I see that they are still crazy hippies, but I get why they’re so gung ho on their diets. Veganism Feels Good. It is the be all end all of guilt free diets. Guilt FREE, do you hear that people? What more can you ask for? Less cellulite? Better skin? A toned ass? It can give you that, too.

Animal Rights National Conference 2011

I Love Direct Action

I’ve been wanting to attend AR2011 for 2 years, so I cashed in my AirMiles and went for the weekend (United Airlines is a suckfest with planes from the 70s still with the ashtrays that will probably kill you and your family in a horrible plane crash if you fly with them, just saying). I was immediately greeted by friendly (albeit drunk) vegans in the lobby, and there was that familiar sensation from Let Live that everyone had a secret we all shared: we are all vegan(ish) and we are all on a path we feel inwardly very proud of but can’t always express in the animal-consuming world.

Shirts read: “Ask Me Why I’m Vegan”, Or, “Don’t Ask Me Why I’m Vegan, Ask Yourself Why You Aren’t.” Or “Compassion is Not Terrorism”

The plenary began on Saturday morning with a strong speech by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau of Compassionate Cooks. She expressed an importance of not using the terms ‘fake meat’ or even ‘meat alternatives’ for things like Tofurkey and seitan, etc. because vegans don’t see them as alternatives – we see them as the only ideal way to eat – plant based. She referred to items like dairy and eggs as ‘animal secretions’ (I will so be using that). And she closed with a statement that we can use the traits of animals to win the animals their rights back. This induced emotion (even in me). The animals are brave in their struggle and we can use their bravery as our inspiration.

Also featured as a speaker was vegan Simpsons creator (!) Sam Simon, who was effortlessly funny and talked about how Real Housewife, Kyle Richards, was recently  made aware of the elephant abuse that occurs in Ringling Bros. circuses via Twitter. (Sidenote: 600 activists showed up to protest the circus in downtown L.A. on July 20th and there was an activist presence all week, right up until they ran the elephants back into their trains/trailers – whatever insufficient transportation device.)

For those who know me, I’m not the best passive listener, so I only did the conference one day. I went to a great talk on speaking our message by Josephine Bellacomo, a super fantastic speaker and activist. I want to be prepared to speak to media (and other interested parties) so this was very useful and Josephine was inspiring in her clear, sincere speaking manner. And I also went to a great discussion lead by Stephan Kaufman (who I see now is from the Christian Vegetarian Association… interesting cause I was bashing anti-abortion) on the grey areas of animal rights ethics: Can we ever justify cheating, stealing, subordinating other social justice goals?

This was a pertinent talk because we had all types of activists joining in from marines to teens, some preferred direct action, others preferred outreach. We talked about the new Pig Farm Investigation video from Mercy for Animals and discussed whether it is ever okay for an activist to kill and abuse animals (even if for the sake of capturing the realities of the industry on film). Very interesting because I often say: healing can never come from violence. But how would this video have come to be without an infiltrator? I can honestly say that I’m still mulling this one over.

We also talked about using women as sex symbols to get attention for animal rights issues (Peta, we’re talking about you). It seems almost silly to confuse the issues – animal abuse and sexual arousal, but on the other hand, veganism is the sexiest thing out there. Being healthy, compassionate, and self-respecting truly radiates beauty and sex appeal, and maybe some want to show this off while backing important issues. Not all sexual displays are degrading.

We also discussed whether animal rights can clash with other social issues, putting animals before people. But most activists in the room agreed on this: treating animals with kindness leads to treating humans with more kindness, whether it be the slaughterhouse workers (ending cycles of violence and oppression), the consumers (reducing food-borne illnesses and dietary diseases caused by animal products), or those facing issues of poverty and hunger (veganism can provide more food for more people).

Saturday evening ended with four successful home demos against L.A. based vivisectors. Edythe London, a UCLA primate abuser, stood outside and watched 66 activists express sorrow and outrage at her practices while DRINKING A CORONA AND LAUGHING WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. Her neighbours did not take the matter as lightly. I didn’t take pictures as I didn’t want to have any trouble at the border (one of my friends is currently flagged as an eco-terrorist for having activist literature with her while crossing the border).

Edythe London: Vivisector, UCLA Relieves Guilt By: Drinking & Nervous Laughter

Conferences are great to remind us that we are not alone in this growing movement, which is the epitome of all non-violent movements. So many amazing hearts and minds were there building an indestructible energy – Will Potter, Nathan Runkle, Vancouver’s Brian Vincent, to name just a few. (A complete stranger from Band of Mercy lent me his Prius to hit the Ringling demo – what a guy.) All types of people (and animals) are now connected at a closer level and have new ideas for how to give the animals of this planet the freedom and joy they deserve.

But I just found this quote: As Dylan Powell from the Vegan Police is fond of saying “Talk – Action = Nothing”

As we convene, we must remember to act on what we’ve learned. As my new sticker says: “I <3 Direct Action”.

What we feel compelled to do, we must follow through

Git. Er. Done.

Who are We Doing it For?

Wearethey Examines the “They”:

The Link Between Inspiration and Caring what People Think

At times I’m so motivated towards creative projects that I neglect my social life to work on ideas. But WHY am I working towards greatness? To stand back and admire my own work? If that were the case, then I should be perfectly happy to live on a desert island. I like alone time, but dude – that’d suck.

I create art to be recognized. I strive to create greatness that others recognize as great. But who are these ‘others’ whose admiration I hope to gain? Because most of the people in my life, while I admire many of their particular traits and skills, are slightly to severely morally lacking and there are very few people whose full validation I aim to capture. Sorry, friends.

Flakiness

Flakiness is tricky. Some of the people who I consider highly evolved are flaky. By this I mean: most people do not keep their word. They will not return an important text or phone call, they will not show up to important events, they will not remember something important in your life – they will leave you in a bind. And they will not apologize, because if they apologized for flaking once, they’d have to do it all the time. (I do have 1 or 2 people in my life who are reliable right now and they are extremely sexy to me.)

When I tabulate how often people let me down, it unmotivates me. What’s the point? I ask myself. I have nothing in common with these people: I keep my word.

But these same people could very well be saving the world at their own pace. Some of the bravest activists I know: flakes.

Integrity is About more than Keeping your Word

There are other components to integrity besides reliability. Integrity is about more than just doing what you say you’re going to do. Morality entails examining the state of the world and truly stepping up to be a leader. Identifying priorities: eg. taking a cause to the street over color coordinating your dishware (guilty)…the natural world being bulldozed while we hide at home vacuuming perfect putting green stripes into our carpet. Some of the people I know who are the most reliable are lacking in morality, their eyes squeezed shut to the ways they could be applying themselves to live BIGGER. I know – life is stressful. And acting on a larger scale requires taking larger risks. But with these risks comes exhilaration.

When I think of the flaming apathy in so many who I vibe with on a daily basis, and who show up for me, I feel alienated and… unmotivated, once again. If they don’t really care about the big pic, will they care about what I have to offer? Or will they simply feel uncomfortable by it? Like I’m raining on their parade?

The Flasher Was Right

I once had a debate with a friend (…who flaked so bad once that he is now only referred to as “The Flasher” for his episodical vampirical trenchcoat attire) regarding the question: is it better to make art for as many as possible to grasp, or to make art only grasped by a few twisted souls strangely similar enough to you?

Dumbing it down vs elitism.

He was of the school of thought: if you only reach one person…

To quote one an animal rights chant: “We will never compromise.” And yet “the Classics” are universal.

Do It For God

God is dead to me after he flaked on Armageddon, or whatever. Actually I didn’t even hear about that until after because I just joined Facebook 2 days ago. But they say you do whatever it is you’re trying to do better if you do it for and from “The Source”. So go ahead and do it for God, or Santa, or Abraham, or whatever you like to call that patriarchal force in the clouds.

Do It For No One?

Dance like no one’s watching, they say. That would suck if no one was ever watching!

I strongly suggest dancing as though everyone is watching. You’ll keep better rhythm.

Do It For Your Friends. Or Your Enemies

You may have figured out by now that there is not one single ‘opinion’ of you. Everyone’s opinion about you is sightly different and most people care less than you think – this should be liberating, not depressing.

I would be honored to capture the attention of my peers in the animal rights community, the writing community, the attention of the innovators of the new era… whether or not they would strand me on a mountain top or not. Even if my fellow creators are assholes, I still want their attention.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Do It for Fame

Gaga… (She lost the lady title after the meat dress.) What she does, she does directly for attention and to me this is not art. She is willing to be ugly – for fame. Willing to be freaky over sexy – for fame. Whether you love her or hate her, there is a yawn factor to Lady Gaga for those who see through her shtick. The saying: “reeks of effort” comes to mind.

Do it because it’s easy. Not because you must be the FIRST AND BEST AND ONLY. Otherwise, you’ll look desperate and attention seeking and victimized and insecure and played out and lookatmelookatme.

Do It to Lead. Not to win the praise of leaders. (Cough*Obama).

Do It For the Universal Stranger

The more you value humans (human life, human opinion) in whole or in part – the better art you will create. When you create art, you assume that we are more alike than different, and that the part of you who listens as a stranger is also alive in other listening strangers.

One of my favorite authors, Miriam Toews, was a huge motivator for me because her twisted sense of humor was written in a way that I would never have dared to write – too odd, too convoluted, too subtle for others to get, I thought – and yet A Complicated Kindness was a bestseller. I didn’t know that people would get it if I went there with my own writing. She went there, so I knew I could go there, too.

The risk is in being misunderstood. Risk it.

When we write in a genuine voice, we create in others a genuine listening ear.

Top 5 Dnb Tunes of the 1st Day of the Revolution

Drum & Bass – Let it Love You

1) On A Good Day (J Majik & Wickman Remix), Above & Beyond

2) Contour – Desire

3) High contrast-Pink Flamingos

4) PH – Nice One

5) John B – Numbers (Camo & Krooked Remix)

 

Be sure to click HERE for dawnofanewera’s DNB collection

10 Things You May Not Know About Isla Kay

Who’s that girl?

10 Things You May Not Know About Isla

Isla & Boost (...it's all faux, except Boost's. Judge him as you will.)

10) Isla once drove a steamroller. She was not good at it.

9) Isla used to wear a rainbow magnet belt everyday as a child – over her bathing suit, nightgown, and rainbow crinoline tutu. She would accessorize the accessory with a rainbow Carebear, otherwise known as Cheerbear.

8) Isla’s legal name is Isla Michelle Lauren Kay, Isla was added because Isla can’t live up to Michelle’s girliness, it means island, and…to be difficult – Sorry Mom & Dad!

(Isla’s go-to make-believe name used to be “Jean” because she thought blue jeans were cool, lame!)

7) Isla has been an imperfect vegan for 2 years and began progressively giving up animal products at the age of 14 following a friend’s lead in becoming a “white meat vegetarian” (no red meat). True vegetarianism began at 18 when forced to choose all meat or no meat during a summer as a counselor at Camp Chief Hector. And vegan cred goes to Glenn Gaetz. Cred for this post idea, too, while we’re on the topic.

6) Isla has never kissed a girl… but she probably would – PM me! ; )

5) Reason for this being that Isla is Boy Crazay-zy. Every time she considers kissing a girl, she gets side tracked by hot men.

4) Isla has been told that her best and worst quality is that she’s a free spirit.

3) When Isla was a child her favourite food was veal : ( : ( She would dine with her parents at a German restaurant named The Black Forest in Invermere and when once told it was a baby cow, her little brain could not make the correlation.

2) Isla is a fuckin’ adult, yo. 30 as of April 27^th, 2011.

1) Isla became an animal rights activist due to her true love for her deceased puppy dog, Turbeau –  a cuddly bijon frise stuffed animal soul mate doggy.

Top 5 dnb Tunes of the Mirco-Era

5 Dnb Trax

for Your Music Receptors

…and I cave – a dub track

1) McLean – Finally in Love (Camo & Crooked remix)

2) Zarif – Box of Secrets (Cyantific and Wilkinson Remix)

3) Chase & Status – Let You Go (Brookes Bros. Remix)

4) Forward – Fury

5) B Complex – Beautiful Lies

6) The Streets – In the Middle (Nero Remix)

Be sure to click HERE for dawnofanewera’s dnb collection.