#95 | To bourguignon or not to bourguignon
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ― Mark Twain
“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” ― Sylvia Plath
Moral questions can escalate to absurdity. Participating in a cause (or changing a habit) to benefit our health, or our planet's health, can raise questions. When taken to the impractical, but perhaps logical, conclusion, these questions can undermine the spirit of moderation that is pursued.
One such line of reasoning is, "would the world be able to operate as-is if everyone became a Buddhist monk?" I've heard this assertion against investigating Buddhism and ― though I've not considered it ― against becoming a monk. Of course, the world would be very different, but I'm sure this is not the best line of reasoning against converting.
I was at dinner a fortnight ago and sat next to a hilarious, loud, open-minded vicar who is also a sheep farmer. He was fantastic. The main course was beef bourguignon, a delicious heavy slab of blood-red beef with mash and gravy.
I'd recently read some Peter Singer books, many of which encourage veganism, or at the very least, being a veggie. Since then, my dinner with the vicar was the first time I'd faced the moral question of whether I should eat the meat that the waiter served (which looked divine and was already a dead non-human animal) or ask for the vegetarian option. After hesitating, I opted for the latter, which sparked a conversation about the food choices of our society.
Needless to say, as a sheep farmer, the vicar questioned my choice not to eat meat. His argument ran as follows: what will happen to all of the farmers whose livelihoods have (for generations) depended on the industry, and who will be left out in the cold if the world becomes plant-based?
Resistant people often take arguments to the absurd extreme when faced with change: I do this, too. The change will uproot people's lives. Take, for example, the metaverse, a controversial and in-vogue topic.
When it comes to the metaverse, the initial reaction from most people is that they hate the idea of their life unfolding entirely virtually. I agree: after all, would love be love if you could attach it to an email? Will picking plums from a Slovenian hillside be joyous if it's infinitely repeatable? Moreover, I like my I.R.L. life. The messiness of existence, its surprises and emotion and excitement. I'd lose something indescribable if I lived like a dongle hanging out of a USB port.
These arguments against the metaverse (and the corollary arguments against ‘change’ more generally) subtly describe the most extreme version of what could happen. Then, because radical change seems unpalatable, the NIMBYs, or their moral equivalent, discredit the idea of even moderate transformation. Rather than agreeing that some level of metaverse adoption will be a good thing (a digital face-to-face interaction is undoubtedly better than a WhatsApp chat), we enter into absurd fantasies. In the case of the metaverse, we fear we may never escape it and therefore don't want it at all.
As I ate my veggie quiche under the oak trusses of the high-roofed barn hall, I explained to the vicar that I don't think all carnivorous behaviour is bad. Yet, the world can eat less meat (because: carbon footprint, animal suffering, inefficient food source). Banning meat is probably not preferable; eating it in moderation is. Moreover, I was not calling for the wholesale redundancy of Welsh sheep farmers; rather, the curtailing of animal suffering.
I'm unsure if I got my point straight then or even now. Nevertheless, next time I disproportionately extend an argument― and get absurdly extreme with it ― to serve my aims, I'll pay closer attention! It's all too easy to do.
My week in books
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. This is another classic. The first thing I've read about the Spanish Civil War; his experience clearly inspired his later work (1984 in particular).
"It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours."
A big run
While we’re on the topic of absurd extremes (and inspired by my friend JJ), I will be running the Marathon Des Sables next year. In due course, I'll write a post about what it is, what I'll be raising money for, and why; however, I thought I'd flag it here as a way of committing! More to follow.
Live well,
Hector