How to be a better human

Or: No meat for a week

Die Welt ist schlecht, aber mein Leben nicht. Deshalb akzeptiere ich das Lächeln in meinem Gesicht.  Edgar Wasser

It’s not that easy. Yes, the world is bad. We all know it. In fact, we’ve known it all along. 

Documentaries such as FOOD Inc. informed us about… well, food. They told us about the ways of food production in a capitalistic unfair world (fun fact: The world we live in!).

A world that neither cares about quality, nor about animals or workers in the industry. Others showed us that global warmingis going to kill us and that we have a global footprint. With every scandal, with every investigative article or film, we learn more cruel facts about the world. The politicians don’t trust each other and surveil their friends and neighbors (and your grandma, too?).   

You, as the ordinary human, as the ordinary citizen, get the impression that our world sucks.

Is this cheese bad, too?

It doesn’t get better, only worse. The world seems to become an even shittier place. There are “bad people” everywhere ruining it in a thousand different ways. And there are we, supporting them. We are guilty. For a system we’ve been born into. For a system that hides its downsides in every possible way. The “Made in China” tag in my shirt doesn’t tell me the working and living conditions of that poor Chinese 12-year-old who produced it. The tag doesn’t inform me how toxic the bleaching process was or how much of this poison is still in the shirt, it doesn’t let me know how many liters of drinking water were polluted during the production. It just tells me: This shirt was made in China.

I hate to admit it. We are guilty. The accusations are true. 

Es ist nicht deine Schuld, dass die Welt ist, wie sie ist. Es wär‘ nur deine Schuld, wenn sie so bleibt.

Die Ärzte

We are here, learning about all this information… and still not changing anything. We travel with airplanes, buses and cars – because it’s so easy. We still eat the meat and the eggs produced in factory farming. We still buy at H&M. We want the big companies to change for us, we don’t want the challenge to change ourselves. We still use whatsapp, we still buy new smartphones every two years. I hate that we do. But we do.

Why? Pure convenience. 

But how can we stop? How can I stop doing what I hate? 

A Guide:

1. Don’t become numbed by the news. 

Personally, I struggle with the overload of badness in this world. All the things I hear about (e.g. about human trafficking in Europe & the US – recently in a TED talk) evoke strong emotions in me: Anger, fear, sadness or disappointment. But instead of doing something, I just want the bad feeling to go away and put on a new episode of my favorite series on Netflix. All this horrible information makes me jaded. And ignorant. And little. I tell myself that I can’t change anything. This is wrong. You need to see that this is wrong.

2. Money

Being good is expensive. You can’t buy meat by cows that had a good life, ate good natural food without antibiotics and pay supermarket prices. It’s impossible. Or Bio-products. They are expensive. They have to be. Because quality means costs. 

Warning: This doesn’t mean that a pricy product is automatically a good product.

I bet you can afford tomatoes.

(For example expensive jeans that are produced under the same shitty conditions like PRIMARK jeans) What I want to say: There’s a reason for FairTrade and Bio-products to have a certain price. You can look up the standards of labels online. A product of good quality is distinguished by the transparency of the process!

Not everyone is able to live healthy and “good”. But I bet you are. I bet you can spare a dollar or a Euro here and there. HEY, WAKE UP! IT’S YOUR BODY. IT’S YOUR LIFE, THE FOOD YOU EAT, THE PRODUCTS YOU CONSUME. IT’S YOUR WORLD. 

 

3. Start anywhere & try it out

You see something that sucks. You see that you support it. You stop doing it.

It’s not that easy, I’m aware. But just start with something now. Change your electricity provider and use eco power.  Tipp: Changes you have to put effort into once are easy – Even for reeeeaally comfort-loving people

But on the other hand, when you have little decisions to make in your daily life, make them actively and consciously FOR a better world. Like: Today I take my bike instead of the bus.

START ANYWHERE. You read: “Company X has bad working conditions. Their workers are underpaid, work too many hours and have to live in sheds.” – You don’t buy their products. It’s that easy.

For me: After a conversation with a friend (who lives vegan) I thought again about becoming a vegetarian. It’s not just that Freiburg as a green & alternative city is the perfect seeming environment to do it. It’s that I’ve known the production process and problems of the meat industry for like 4 years now. And what did I change? I’ve stopped eating at McDonald’s – Ok, 1 point for me. But, except for that? Not much. I can say about me that I don’t like lots of meat sorts. But for someone who doesn’t love meat eternally, I still eat a lot of it.

I want to reduce my consumption. And when I eat meat, I want to be sure about its quality (see 2).

Therefore I will start small: No meat for a week. After that, I’ll see how I get by. If I “need” it or if I feel a big loss… I’m not making assumptions, I’m not going further. I’m just trying it out. 

I'm glad I can still eat waffles

4. Focus

You have to accept that you are just one person. A person that counts, yes, that is true. But also just a human who can’t be perfect in everything – and still have a life, a job, a family, and other stuff.

So, I tell you: It’s true that you can’t be good in every way. But can be good in some ways. So choose something that you care about. And commit yourself to it. Engage in changing things you can change and things that are important to you.

If you love animals – help out in the animal shelter or become a vegetarian. If you care about equal rights for men and women, print feminist stickers and spread them on campus.

Focus on something!

The vlogbrothers established the “foundation to decrease world suck”.  Any member can suggest ideas how to do it (in any way possible) and find (financial) support by the foundation. If you want to help from the comfort of your home. Donate!

- If you want to donate to an organization, make sure they have enough transparency(!) so that you can be clear about how your money is used for a good cause. 

 

     5. Stay informed.

Last of all: Don’t let yourself fall back into the comfortable sofa! Or if you do: Make sure you have your veggie snacks with you and watch the news.

We already think: The world sucks. The world is bad. – And that’s true

But: There are still shitty things that happen and that nobody knows about. There’s this mountain of problems and shitty things we have to get rid of – and still it’s becoming bigger.

What not to do: Nothing. That’s what too many people did who came before us.  I am angry at them. And so will our children and  grand-grand-children and if you don’t want children your nephews or any other people that will  live in this world when you are gone hate us.

And if you don’t care about this then maybe you are one of the “bad people” and you are yourself leading one of the capitalist and unfair companies that I was talking about.

Here’s to you: You can still change. You have got the money and the means. You just have to use them.

Sorry about the random food pictures from my recent Paris trip - Here are potatoes!