What if we all suddenly told the truth, although I am well aware of the problem of the term „truth“. But telling a friend alone that you find the hairstyle she got heinous takes a lot of courage. You could still say, of course. „You’re a beautiful woman. Even this hairstyle cannot harm you.” How this is appreciated depends, among other things, on how exactly the girlfriend listened. Still, is that the truth? Certainly not a general opinion, but nothing more than a subjective opinion. From this it can be seen that we are not interested in the great, high truth, but rather the subjective opinions of our social environment. More than that, we depend on this goodwill because we don’t want to be spinners or polluters. That is why we do a lot of things that we do not know the meaning or benefits of, but only the insight that we do it. This abstruse, widespread and yet unbelievable man. In order to be part of it, we are even willing to make sacrifices, such as spending money on things that you would not be able to buy, you would choose yourself or risk your health. This discrepancy becomes most obvious when one puts in the possibility of reducing the suffering in the world.

„Starving so many children every day, it’s not terrible,“ you say to me.
„Yes, that’s terrible,“ I agree with you.
“And the rainforests are burned down or cut down. We will soon be out of breath,” you continue.
„And the people who live in the rainforests are killed or driven out,“ I add.
„Imagine it, such horrible conditions,“ you enthuse yourself, „how can you allow that. How I would like to change something, but what should I do?“
„So you would like that no child in the world has to go hungry anymore?“ I ask.
„Yes, that would be wonderful,“ you explain.
„And you also want the rainforests to be cut down?“ I continue.
„Of course that would be great,“ you think.
„And you would also like to experience that the people who live in the rainforests are no longer driven out or killed?“ I add.
„Of course, who shouldn’t want that,“ you say with conviction.
„You can do all of this,“ I say.
„I clear I can’t do anything,“ you claim.
“Yes, you can do a lot if you want, all of this and much more, such as saving the oceans, keeping the groundwater clean, delaying climate change and avoiding pandemics. It is possible,” I explain.
„Sure, and what should that look like?“ You ask provocatively, because it is obvious that you like to moan as long as you can’t change anything.
„It’s easy. You do not have to swear an oath or swear off life, on the contrary, you do not have to give up modern achievements and pull into a hole in the ground, it is only necessary that you do without any animal products. That’s all”, I tell you. For a few minutes you only look at me silently. Then you turn around and go, because you can’t do without animal suffering, not for the environment, not for the children of this world, not for the rainforests, not for other people, not even for your own health. Maybe you were a little sad too, because you might really want everything to get better, but only as long as you can put it off the others to change something. For myself, that is not possible. That’s why we prefer to let the rainforests burn, drive people away or kill them and starve the children before we give up a minimal amenity. And we have removed the masks for the next pandemic wave. However, when the day comes when our own children die because antibiotics are no longer effective, we can still think about it. Maybe.

Something like this can happen to you when you meet on the tell-the-truth day, although it should be every day. But who wants that?