Voluntaryism and Veganism

Voluntaryism and Veganism

So what exactly is voluntaryism? That’s not a very common word, but it is very significant when it comes to freedom and happiness.

Voluntaryism is the idea that the actions someone takes are done voluntarily, or by their own free will. For example; if someone decides to spend the day watching cartoons in their pajamas, they are doing so voluntarily. However if someone is forced to, say, pay taxes agains their free will, then they really aren’t performing that action voluntarily. The litmus test is whether someone volunteers to take some action or do some specific thing. Are we following?

Cool. So when it comes to animal agriculture, the animals have far from volunteered to participate in their chosen way of life. They are born or bred into a life of confinement and human management, restricted by cages, fences, walls, or other boundaries, fed and treated with all kinds of chemicals, extracted of their secretions, their body parts mutilated or dismembered, their babies stolen from them, and their bodies eventually slaughtered.

This would all be well and good if these animals had consciously chosen to participate in this lavish lifestyle, but the issue lies in the fact that not one of them made the vote to live as slave utilities and therefore their sense of voluntaryism and freedom of choice has been stripped away from them.

To make an analogy that human beings can understand, this cruel and unusual punishment can be likened to the way governments force mandatory vaccines on young children without their consent, the way young males have their genitals mutilated during circumcision without their approval, or the way people are “forced” to give up a significant portion of their hard-earned money to the government tax coffers without receiving any direct benefits for their donations.

Peace and love exists when an exchange between two or more beings are done voluntarily and at the free will of all the participants. This is a true gift from one being to the other, and can be honored and cherished with a full sense of respect and dignity. Otherwise if any participant is unconsenting the interaction constitutes involuntary servitude, which isn’t very fair to the one who didn’t want to play the game in the first place.

In addition to animal agriculture, the concept of voluntaryism extends to the idea of pet “ownership”, zoos, circuses, rodeos, and even sanctuaries and horseback riding. If an animal used his/her own free will to be part of a  life, live under human conditions, enjoy any or all of the restrictions placed on him/her by the human, then there would be no harm or foul. But when humans make the choice to place an animal under their control for any reason, decide what and when he/she will eat, or otherwise make any other decisions about how that animal will live, the human is again stripping the animal of his/her freedom and removing voluntaryism from his/her life.

The values of a vegan lifestyle include compassion for all beings, respect for their freedom, and refraining from using animals as property or utilities. It is our responsibility as humans, who have the power to dominate and overpower almost all other beings, to summons the love and kindness in our hearts to abstain from unfairly manipulating animals or supporting companies that do by avoiding eating, wearing, or otherwise using them for entertainment or utilities without their full consent or approval.

Today we can make “voluntaryism” our “word of the day” and use that concept as our moral compass when it comes to the choices we make. If the food we eat, products we buy, events and entertainment we support, or the “pets” we love involve animals who have made the vote themselves to allow us to use them, then we are probably on the right track. If not, and we are exploiting animals who are not volunteering their services to us from the bottom of their own hearts, then we are essentially supporting slavery and unconsenting dominance.

The Golden Rule states that we should treat others the way we want to be treated. Unless we love being told what to do, where and how to live, and what will be done to our bodies and souls, then should we not respect the same freedoms that animals wish to enjoy?

Voluntaryism and veganism. Get some today!