I ponder long and hard about the inability to do many things that I would do.

Many of the work environments in which you and I
find ourselves are adamantly opposed to our deepest values and commitments.

Most of the time I hear complaints about coworkers
who "haven't a clue" about moral sensitivity, but
I need only remind people that the entire context
in which these people operate is one that is
adamantly hostile to our deliberate attempts to
do good by not harming, to care about others,
and to refrain from causing meaningless and
needless pain and suffering.

Also, much of what our places of employment do
are a mixture of many of the following crimes or wrongs:

(a) conditioning people to do or accept evil or harm
     done to themselves or others or the environment
(b) direct harms against persons or ecosystems
(c) conditions of disrespect for sustainable values
(d) political chicanery or maneuvering to acquire
     blocks of wealth or power for the unjust, cruel,
     and inhumane community of human beings.

Therefore, even if WE were capable (BTW, a big "IF")
of being consistently good, or positively constructive
or capable of acting without injuring others, and
willing the good on their behalf, we could easily
interpret our conditions of behavior as a forced
compromise between our constructive wills and the
demands of the downward pulls around us.

I think constantly of the struggle of people like
Paul in Romans 7:19, who, in struggling with
the status of his own personal nature, wrote:
"For the good that I would, I do not; but the
evil that I would not, that I do."

Now, Paul was deliberating on his own nature,
and we probably ought to do some of the same,
but many of us also are plagued with the
issues of our contemporary environment,
and how that effects our behaviors.

I put this under the broader topic of
"what we can expect to result or emerge as a
result of our having lived and acted historically."

Christian theologians have long interpreted this
moral dilemma as a three-fold pull against the good
that we might sensitively (and productively) realize -
the world (everything around us that somehow
degrades us), the flesh (our own wrongdoing and
the impulses native to our own bodies-as-ourselves),
and the Devil (a real Personal presence of Evil in
the world that also manages to confound all good
intentions and behaviors and to pervert even the
best of intentions, but most objectively our personal
wills).

Many of us believe that the reason we are able to
do good is because we will to do good, and that
the inability to do good is a result of the conditions
in which we are required to live those (otherwise
good, we like to think) lives.

Life, therefore, for such "ethical sensitives,"
is a constant compromise between our moral
sensitivities or sensibilities and our commitments
to compromising conditions.

I understand that not everyone fully agrees on
how simply our moral explanations should be
about the nature of moral decisionmaking,
or of ethical analysis, or moral self-realization;
nor could we ever agree on how complex our
analyses of relevant factors ought to be -
and the reasons why those analyses ought
to be more or less, simple or complex.

I'd invite more dialogue on this topic from
anyone who believes herself or himself interested
in the topic AS it relates to our sensitivities that
motivate our vegetarian identities.

Needless to say, with all the efforts we vegetarians
have made in person, at conferences, on the Internet,
and in vegetarian, AR, and health publications
to express ourselves, to share information, and
even to do what in our own understandings
WE believe to be good and honest -
history seems to not be going the right way,
the public isn't "wired" for health or compassion,
and the vast majority of people are not making
serious improvements in their moral tone OR
their sensitivities towards the rights of others to
remain unmolested OR their health consciousness.

There was a period somewhat "akin to"
a "revival" when people in the USA seemed to
become kind of sensitive to respecting animals
AND their own needs for self-care regarding their
physical health and well-being.

As a non-European, it is difficult for me to comment
on the status of the broader human population
throughout Europe, let alone in other parts of our
planet.

Nonetheless, I think that, with 265,000,000 people
or so in my/our particular nation, I can get a pretty
good sense from reading and hearing and watching
news and people and personal and social commentary,
that our modern human history is a "mixed bag" of
good and not-so-good.

Just my experience on the Internet gives me that
kind of picture, and I get the same picture when
I deal ONLY with vegetarians as when I deal with
both vegetarians and nonvegetarians, or when
I deal primarily with nonvegetarians.

Surely there are few places where we honestly
could feel comfortable working, IMO.
If we were really rigorous in our analysis of
how much others influence us, we might become
even MORE careful about our companions,
but that topic is a really "hot potato" -
feels like immediately taking a huge spud out of
the microwave after 10-12 minutes of cooking
and trying to consume it immediately.  Hot Potato !

Does anyone reflect upon the MEANING of
our deeply frustrating moral struggles and the
significance of the vast network of powers that
seek to harm our souls and sensitivities, and
the persons and well-being of others, including
nonhumans, and the planet?

Maynard S. Clark     Vegetarian Resource Center