...
Why do you imagine your analysis is entirely rational?
Why do you 'imagine' that it may
not be so?
You weigh up animal rights against your own happiness and the effects of your lack of it on others. Well, in that analysis, have you taken into account:
What it was, exactly that made you unhappy when you were vegetarian?
In my earlier post, I described exactly what it was that made me unhappy. A loss of a sense of collegiality that I get from sharing meat with other meat-eaters, and a loss of pleasure that I get specifically from eating meat--a pleasure which is noticeable even with very low quality meat, and that intensifies exponentially with increase in quality of the meat. Properly prepared A5 grade Kobe Wagyu steak is nearly narcotic in the intensity of pleasure it provides me. It's a good thing it costs so much (the finest cuts--those with a marble score of 12--can go for $1500/pound) or I would certainly die of gluttony.
To simply say being vegetarian makes you unhappy would be to simplify things. What aspects of being vegetarian made you unhappy, and importantly, is it possible they could have been catered for by means other than a return to meat-eating?
The most intense vegetarian pleasure I've experienced is from Perigord Truffles. They are as pleasurable as many very fine meats. Unfortunately, they are as expensive as the aforementioned A5 Kobe. I can afford to eat one or the other maybe once every 3 or 4 years. Truffles have other drawbacks, though, as well: They are so pungent that I really can't eat more than a few grams at a time without getting sick. They don't really complement other vegetables very well--though they have a truly synergistic effect on fine meat; they're far more difficult to obtain than good meat; they're not particularly fun to cook; even though the flavour and aroma are wonderful, they're completely missing the tactile and textural pleasures which meat provides.
The second most vivid pleasure I get outside the Animal Kingdom comes from homegrown heirloom tomatoes. I eat these every day when they're in season, and if I had to live without them I think I would experience very near the same sense of loss I got from giving up meat. But they're already a part of my diet in great quantity when they're available--which is only a couple of months during the year, so they'll never be able to substitute for the meat in my diet. I've tried growing them indoors during other times of year, but the results are always disappointing. (As a side note, I'm wondering: has anyone else ever noticed that the flavour of a fresh vine-ripened tomato degrades remarkably within just a few hours of picking the fruit from the living plant? Someday I've got to set up a double-blind taste test to see if I'm right about this, or if my personal experience is just delusional).
For instance, some vegetarians might be unhappy because they eat a diet of mainly salad and are hungry all the time. They might welcome a return to meat-eating, when in fact changing to eating good filling meals such as a variety of vegetarian pasta bakes and brown rice dishes might make them feel much better.
Vegetarian food can be quite good. I'm a former chef, with considerable experience catering to vegetarians, and I have no difficulty preparing exceptional food without meat.
OTOH, although I don't get the opportunity nearly as often as I'd wish, I love to kill and butcher my own meat. Satisfying blood lust is a luxury of the highest order for me. I suppose if I really wanted to remain vegetarian I could continue to experience this by killing animals and
not eating them afterwards, but that seems wasteful to me.
I guess there must be some measure of cognitive dissonance at play here, since I certainly recognize that it's immoral to take pleasure in killing, but the pleasure is there nonetheless, and it really can be quite intoxicating. Maybe I could substitute opium or some other drug for this feeling, but drugs have other drawbacks.
There's also the gestalt of tearing flesh with canine teeth, gnawing muscle and connective tissue from a rib, or sucking the soft marrow from the center of a veal shank. If there's a way to simulate these experiences with vegetarian cuisine, I've never heard of it. I'm certainly open to suggestions.
Or they might feel lonely because they can't go out with their friends to the steak house any more so they welcome a return to meat-eating, when in reality there are a few good vegetarian restaurants in the neighbourhood and it might turn out that their friends consider it a real treat to be invited to them and enjoy the menus.
I have not stopped frequenting my favourite vegetarian restaurants. Some are excellent, and I've even once or twice surprised other meat eaters by pointing out after a truly satisfying meal that we'd not had any meat with it--the food was so good they didn't even notice. Unfortunately, although I do love them, they're simply not in the same league as my favourite barbecue joints, and although I've been around the world twice and lived in several countries--always avidly exploring the diversity of cuisines available wherever I go, I have never found any vegetarian cuisine anywhere that approaches the luxury of the finest
teppanyaki or
sushi. Also, really good vegetarian restaurants truly are a lot more difficult to find than comparable omnivorous establishments, and the bad ones make even McDonald's food look grand by comparison.
Some vegetarians might crave meat because they simply miss the taste of it, so they might welcome a return to meat-eating, when in reality there are meat substitutes now that can be flavoured to taste exactly like meat, so they could eat those instead.
I've tried such substitutes. Some really can fool even a devout meat-eater--in certain contexts. Generally, this only works in dishes where the texture of a meat is not in the foreground, however. However, the texture/tactile pleasures of great meat far, far outweigh the flavour in importance. So this argument is a non-starter for me.
Was a return to meat-eating really the only alternative you felt you had?
Yes.
If there are other alternatives, you're weighing a false assessment against the rights of animals. I also question your assertion that you have now concluded that moral concerns about them are "bogus". I'll give you an illustration of the kind of thing you're saying is less important in your rational calculations than the effect your unhappiness will have on others. If there is genuinely no alternative option so vegetarianism would make you unhappy no matter what, then maybe you're making a fair assessment. But if there are alternatives, can you really justify meat-eating on the grounds you do?
I'm certainly open to the possibility that there may be alternatives which provide the same level and diversity of pleasure I get from eating meat. If they exist, I've not found them. But I'll eat almost anything that isn't poisonous, and even a few things that are, so I welcome whatever suggestions you have.
At least you're honest about animal rights being less important to you, instead of condemning vegetarians as holier-than-thou for even suggesting such a thing should come into the equasion, as some meat-eaters appear to do.
I agree with you here; and I'll even admit to occasionall--and hypocritically--engaging in the crassness you see in some other meat eaters. The thing is, when I was vegan, I really did feel 'holier-than-thou' disdain for meat eaters, and I'm embarrassed to admit it.
Nevertheless, I'll give you an example of what you're weighing your perceived emotional well-being against:
****Gruesomeness alert****
<snip>
Yeah, slaughterhouses can be quite gruesome. I have several family members that work in slaughterhouses, and the stories they tell can give you nightmares. I view this as an argument to enact, and enforce, stricter regulations--not to stop eating meat. It's certainly possible to raise and slaughter animals humanely--it just costs more (actually, sometimes it costs less--see Dr. Temple Grandin's work in making slaughterhouses run more efficiently by removing things that frighten cows and being sympathetic to their feelings). But you're talking to someone who will occasionally take out a bank loan to buy a cut of beyond-prime
Matsuzaka beef. Making meat cost more is perfectly acceptable to me, though I don't fault people who'd rather not, or cannot, pay more.
One thing I thought was an interesting insight in your first post about your vegetarianism though was what you said about mustering up a sense of superiority to meat-eaters to compensate for your unhappiness. I wonder how much that goes on.
I don't know, really. I've heard only a small handful of other people admit to similar insights, and quite a few vegetarians I know vehemently insist that their own experience is otherwise. Still, when dealing with human emotions of this sort, hidden biases are legion, and the truth can be quite difficult to ferret out.
