Famous Vegans Part III
Again, I'm excluding famous movie actors, sports celebrities, musicians, etc.
A while ago, I wrote about some famous vegans (Part I and Part II). Did the fact that they were vegetarians/vegans make a lasting impression on their contemporaries and on history? Or was it simply a personal choice which didn’t affect the culture of their times? There’s no simple answer, and it varies with every individual. Let’s look at a few more and decide each case.
First, there is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 - 1851), author of the Gothic novel Frankenstein and other books, and her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), one of the most highly acclaimed English Romantic poets.
Both were highly unconventional, following a lifestyle which was deemed shocking and too radical by many of their contemporaries. Mary was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a rebel and free spirit who wrote Vindication of the Rights of Woman when she was 33 years old, making her one of the earliest feminists. She died eleven days after giving birth to her daughter Mary who grew up with her beloved father William Godwin and a stepmother she detested; her father remarried when she was three.
Mary led the epitome of a romantic life. She met 22-year old poet and writer Percy Shelley (who was married) when she was only 17. They fell deeply in love, much to the distress of Mary’s father who forbade Shelley to visit their house again. This didn’t deter the lovers who eloped to Paris and got married two years later, after Shelley’s first wife had committed suicide. Although Shelley came from a wealthy family, his radical political ideas and his advocacy of atheism, among other offenses, led to a break with his father who would withdraw his financial support. The couple were constantly on the move, escaping creditors.
I got completely sidetracked while doing research for this piece. These two young people experienced more adventure, intrigue, and tragedy during their short lives (Shelley drowned at sea, not quite 30) than most of us go through in several long lifetimes – if at all. I thought I’d find countless biographical movies to point you to, but for being one of the most memorable literary couples of all time, the list was surprisingly slim. Here is one, if you want to learn more.
They both followed a plant-based diet. In 1813 Shelley wrote A Vindication of Natural Diet, the most popular of his four essays on the subject. I think he was primarily motivated to stop eating meat for aesthetic considerations. Can you imagine what butcher shops must have looked like then? With bloody animal parts everywhere? A sensitive individual would have been completely revulsed. And once he stopped eating the vile-looking stuff Shelley’s health notably improved. According to Michael Owen Jones, Shelley’s essays also opposed cruelty to animals and demonstrated that agricultural land was used inefficiently with animal food production. They inspired the foundation of the British Vegetarian Society in 1847 and motivated George Bernard Shaw to become a vegetarian.1
Here is a little excerpt from Shelley’s A Vindication of Natural Diet. What do you think about it?
But it is only among the enlightened and benevolent, that so great a sacrifice of appetite and prejudice can be expected, even though its ultimate excellence should not admit of dispute. It is found easier, by the short-sighted victims of disease, to palliate their torments by medicine, than to prevent them by regimen. The vulgar of all ranks are invariably sensual and indocile; yet I cannot but feel myself persuaded, that when the benefits of vegetable diet are mathematically proved; when it is as clear, that those who live naturally are exempt from premature death, as that nine is not one, the most sottish of mankind will feel a preference towards a long and tranquil, contrasted with a short and painful life.2
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Although he wasn’t a vegetarian/vegan himself, his message of nonviolence, compassion, and justice for all beings motivated both his wife, Coretta Scott King, and his second son, Dexter Scott King, to become vegans. Dexter was 25 years old when he became vegan, and his mother followed his example and remained vegan until the end of her life.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.3
I’m convinced that he would have become vegan too, had he been allowed to live. The message of nonviolence is of course based on Gandhi's concept of ahimsa, an ethical principle belonging to Indian religions and philosophies such as Buddhism, Jainism, and the Vedas. It means that no living being should be hurt. That we all share the same life-energy (I would say consciousness) and that to hurt another being means to hurt oneself. If you believe in Karma, any violence you commit will come back at you.
I learned to appreciate what it means to meet physical aggression with nonviolence when I read John Lewis’s memoir Walking With the Wind. He and his fellow civil rights fighters actively practiced to meet hate with love. To not hit back when they were beaten up, in Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Nashville. To be quiet when they were verbally and physically abused. This was nothing passive, they didn’t just endure the violence. They brought themselves to a state of mind where they actively embraced, forgave, and loved their attackers. They did exercises over and over again until this nonviolent state of mind became real, not just a theory.
Following a vegan diet is easy for me because I love animals, including snakes and spiders and other creatures that make many people squirm. Not to hurt mosquitoes becomes harder, and I draw the line with bacteria etc. When my hand got seriously infected after a cat bite that I tried to ignore for three days and my hand was the size of a baseball mitt and hurt like crazy, I went to the emergency hospital where they pumped me up with a drip of antibiotics. But people? Those who commit acts of injustice or violence, including those who simply tolerate this? I want nothing to do with them, can’t stand them, and often say that I prefer animals. Maybe in honor of Dr. King’s birthday I will work on my attitude and try and practice the real meaning of ahimsa.
Dominic Monaghan LOVED insects, reptiles, amphibians, because any creature with fur caused him to have rather nasty allergic reactions as a child. Whether this extended to his diet, I can't say.
We are ALL energy at rest according to Einstein.
I'm savoring this essay. I had a biography of Mary W titled Vindication. It was lovingly read & re-read for decades. Thanks again for being alive in my life 🧬🙏