Vegans Beware!

          The set of friends we’ve acquired since uprooting four years ago includes quite a few vegans and, having heard their arguments in favour of a plant-based diet, I have found myself taking tentative steps down that particular road to Damascus. Although the ethical case for not eating other sentient beings is debatable, the scientific case relating to better health for us and the environment is not. And, as for best use of resources, it makes no sense to devote an estimated 36% of the world’s grain production to feeding animals who, while being bred and raised for slaughter, emit an awful lot of atmosphere-warming methane.

          Our philosophy discussion group began its new year on Tuesday with Socrates, whose principles might have aligned him with ethical veganism, had it been proposed to him, but that being the day after the presidential inauguration of the wannabe dictator, Trump, our focus was on the decline of political ethics since the golden age of Greece. When, in 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius mandated that Christianity must be adopted throughout the Roman Empire, he effectively buried philosophical discussion until the Renaissance. Now, faced with Trump’s triumphant onslaught against the reasonable exchange of ideas, could we be in for a second Dark Age?

          Trump’s vilification and stifling of opposition, along with his blatant attempts to capture the institutions of state, are classic fascist tactics. His success (as defined by winning the election) can be attributed, in part, to the paucity of public education, insofar as it has kept enough of the voting population sufficiently ignorant as to be easily manipulated.

          But the week hasn’t been all doom and gloom. Professional Donald Trump impersonators are delighted to be looking forward to four years of solid bookings. And, more widely, there are the veteran Bob Dylan fans, like me, who bought tickets to a time-travelling treat, A Complete Unknown, the biopic covering Dylan’s emergence in the early sixties. The accuracy of some details in the film is questioned by experts but, for me, it was enough that the overall re-creation of time, place and events had sufficient credibility and more than enough atmosphere to elicit a sometimes tearfully nostalgic response. As for Timothy Chalamet, his impersonation/impression of Bob’ singing and playing was astonishingly convincing – so unlike my amateur attempts in the heyday of my hopeful musical ambition. So absorbing was the film that my Other Half, whose interest in Bob has always been lukewarm and whom I suspect of having come along simply to see Timothy Chalamet, afterwards admitted to having had something of a damascene experience herself.

          I was at one of Dylan’s Royal Albert Hall concerts in 1966, ten days or so after the more famous Manchester gig at which a ‘folk purist’ and erstwhile fan expressed his sense of betrayal by shouting “Judas!” when Bob came onstage with his electric guitar and backing band. The London audience was also divided but I sat on the fence, more intrigued than outraged. In my view, Bob certainly had the last laugh.

          As it turned out, the week’s highlights were overshadowed by the constant stream of bad news from the good old US of A, land of opportunity and centre of the free world, which has seemingly acquired a king – anointed by God when he diverted the assassin’s bullet. Trump’s latest edicts include removing from official documentation the option for citizens to register their sex as any other than either male or female and denying the validity of those parts of the constitution that do not serve his purpose, such as the 14^th amendment, which grants US citizenship to all those born in the USA. More ominous is the implementation of a Soviet style ‘snitch’ culture, whereby Federal employees are now obliged to inform on colleagues they suspect of not whole-heartedly complying with Trump’s orders. At this rate, it won’t be long before, at the behest of the agro-industry lobbyists, Americans will be obliged to report anyone suspected of the unpatriotic crime of veganism.