One more year is coming to an end. And again in western countries there is still this spirit of Christmas, this break when we remember friends and join family as much as possible in the haste of a modern life that seems to suck every second without us even noticing time passing by.
In the 21st century it looks like veganism finally became mainstream. Everywhere we go there should be something vegan to eat and the restaurant waiters no long find it odd when vegans ask for vegan food. Does that spell the end of the vegan movement? Maybe not so fast.
A new year has arrived, and with it our usual wishes and wishful thinking. Many people nurture high expectations when a new year arrives, and that is good as a motivational asset. However, that often boils down to nothing or even leads to disappointment when the new year reveals itself as more of the old stuff.
It is widely believed that the first humanoids were mostly collectors who survived on a plant based diet. Then they evolved the art of hunting and started eating increasingly larger amounts of meat. While this is not a consensual theory, it is possibly undisputed that our ancestors lived much closer to nature than modern humans. And this should b true to possibly all civilizations in known human history. They respected the natural landscapes, the natural cycles of the sun and the moon, the water streams and cycles, and life in general.
Many animal lovers propose that we should take care what stories and songs we teach our children. The reason is that many of those stories and songs are examples of what we should stop doing to animals. So we better sanitize the stories, removing the offending parts or replacing them by more positive alternatives, in order to avoid showing animals as dangerous beings or objects that we can abuse to our own will.