Truth in Singer's Words

I first ventured into vegetarianism when I was in 3rd Grade. It was right around Lent and as others gave up unhealthy/ “ungodly” habits I decided to end my self-loathing relationship with meat. I had always been a bleeding heart animal lover, and the dietary shift seemed like a natural one. Since then, I have been vegetarian for the majority of my life, with only one or two hiccups in between. However, my way of going about it is quite different from Singer’s.

Although we didn’t read it, I was interested to hear about his previous writings on vegetarianism in class. And even though I haven’t gotten around to reading them yet, I can pretty well infer the tone they set. The article that we read in class is very pointed. He brings up a lot of moral issues around wealth and charity that are not necessarily conventional or easy for people to hear. He has a way of writing that somewhat guilt readers into analyzing their own lifestyles, and to take note of the uncalled for materialistic objects in them. This was very interesting for me because I had never really openly forced my opinions of vegetarianism on other people. Albeit, to this day I still use it as the thing I give up for lent, but I never really used it to take action.

This article has changed my perspective on how to go about supporting things you believe in. Before this, I greatly fell into the mentality that you can only change the way you act, and not the way that other people do. However, after reading this, I think I might vocalize my opinions on topics like animal cruelty more often. Overall, I think Singer wrote a very compelling article that forced its readers to think more about what they were spending their money on, and to give back as much as they can. I will definitely take his lessons to heart.