The Vegan

A Vegan State of Being

Now don't misunderstand me. I realize that the picture I have painted is a vile one. I don't mean to say that the world was engulfed in blood and gore, though at the time it seemed that way. No, the truth of the matter is that in general, the world had become a peaceful, beautiful garden where we, as a race, were reunited with our furred and feathered friends. The horrors I mention, though not uncommon,were the exceptions, not the rule, perpetrated by extremists on both sides. By and large, Humanity was at peace with itself for the first time since the gates to the Garden of Eden were closed to us. It was as if being cut off from the rest of the animal world had left Man hollow and aching for a contact we couldn't even remember. Now that the wall between us had been breached, our heart's burdens were lifted and a new era of peace and knowledge was within our grasp.

Once the Meat Eaters were dispensed with, the Vegan society was free to grow and develop at it's own pace. Soon it became obvious that a totally vegetarian diet had many healthful advantages. Our bodies no longer had the massive, muscular look of a hunter. Sure, we may not have had the vigor of the carnivore, but we no longer needed it. We devoted our energies to the gathering of knowledge. The world took on a peaceful demeanor that hadn't been seen in eons. The search for truth occupied our waking hours.

We found that our new diet helped to keep our minds clear, yet the nutritional value of plant matter was not nearly as high as that of animal products. Some took to eating eggs, and drinking milk (when they could get them). They were soon found out and either re-educated or eliminated as was fit. The rest of us simply began grazing. For the uninitiated, this meant that we ate everything in sight. Our habit of eating flesh had been a matter of convenience. We allowed "lower" animals to ingest vast amounts of vegetables and process them into a more reasonable volume of highly nutritious meat. Plant matter can be very nourishing, when consumed in the proper quantities. Most people never noticed before, but, if you watch them you will see that herbivores simply never stop eating. It's the only way they get enough nutrition to survive. This was now our lot.

As our habits changed, so did our society. Phrases like fat as a cow became accepted as compliments. People were expected to be larger now. It became a sign of compassion. As we grew larger, we also grew slower. High levels of activity require a high protein diet. Although this could be accomplished within a vegan diet, our bodies had been dealing with meats for so many millennia that we were having a difficult time with our new lifestyle. Even attempts at synthetic foods failed at reducing the enormous volumes of food stuffs we required. The social arts began fading into the background as the old active lifestyle was replaced by a new, more serious version of the couch potato. Society itself was splintering into smaller and smaller groups. We got to the point where face to face interactions were a rare treat indeed.

The computer networks developed in the eighties now served as links to the outside world. Where once the Internet had been little more than a playground for the connected elite, it was now the only regular contact most of us had with others of our kind. We had become a society of sloths. Our prehensile asses firmly gripping our chairs. We no longer saw other members of our own species. We merely prattered at electronic facsimiles of each other. It was in this weakened state of being that the next blow came.