Goo … sorry I meant searching for some information on the mythical vegetarian saveloy, I came across a mildly interesting discussion revolving around whether vegetarians were allowed to eat meat-based sausages (and saveloys). The suggestion was that of course vegetarians are allowed to eat meat products because it is a personal choice.
Rubbish.
First of all, the choice of becoming a vegetarian may be made for religious or health reasons. The relevant discussion ignored the possibility of being vegetarian for such reasons and specifically mentioned Muslims not being allowed to eat non-Halal meat. Of course becoming a Muslim or one of the “must not eat meat” religions (such as Buddhism) is a matter of choice, but once made you are not allowed by religious “law” to eat what is prohibited.
But it goes further than that. The word “allow” implies an external authority which dictates what is and what is not allowed. Indeed there are such authorities, such as your neighbourhood government’s laws. But this ignores that you can be your own authority – I can allow myself to write blog entries in the evening and prohibit writing them at work. It does not matter that nobody enforces these restrictions other than myself.
Indeed, whatever the authorities may say, almost all restrictions they impose are in the end “enforced” by the individual – it does not matter who says that killing people is wrong, it is my decision whether I kill somebody or not.
Nobody has told me that I cannot eat meat; it is a decision that I have come to – that I am not allowed to eat meat.
Trivialising vegetarianism by saying that vegetarians are allowed to eat meat is extremely insulting to those vegetarians who are very devoted to the cause. If people say that vegetarians are allowed to eat meat, it implies that vegetarians are just being awkward in refusing to eat meat (we’re not) and that (for example) it’s perfectly ok to feed vegetarians meat as a joke.
Not the sort of joke any vegetarian would find funny.
Hill Conquered