I hate Steve Pavlina!
“No! Steve Pavlina?” I hear the incredulous cries go up around the blogosphere.
“You mean the same Steve Pavlina who almost single handedly created the self development blog?
Hate him?
How can that be???!!!”
Pavlina thinks I’m a Nazi
Last Thursday morning, I was minding my own business getting ready for a couple of days trip to the mountains in central Romania. I had a couple of hours to kill before leaving Bucharest – a city where you really need to time your journey well or risk sitting in traffic for hours and hours.
“I know,” I foolishly thought to myself. “I’ll read a few blogs while I’m waiting.”
A word of advice – never read blogs while waiting to leave for a vacation.
‘Modern-day Nazis‘ caught my eye and I wish it hadn’t. Before you follow the link you might want to read the rest of this post first or you might end up hating Pavlina as well.
If you’ve not read it yet, the post is based around a video of some very ugly behaviour in a chicken hatchery for egg production (not for meat). It’s pretty horrific viewing by itself, but then Pavlina rubs salt into the wound by accusing anyone who eats eggs of being a Nazi. There’s also some stuff in the article about living consciously and taking responsibility.
The smug guy even has the audacity at the end of the article to say that if you have a strong reaction then that proves you must be a Nazi. I don’t think he did actually write that, but that’s what I understood.
I eat eggs AND I had a strong reaction.
Pavlina thinks I’m a Nazi.
It’s not wise to ignore reactions
I know from many past experiences that when I react to something, there’s some important business for me to have a look at. Why would I get triggered if there was nothing there?
I calmed down a little on the journey and talking it through with Mona helped a lot – always a calming influence at these moments.
A few things were immediately clear.
My reaction was NOT about what Steve Pavlina thinks about me, nor was it about eggs. Nor was it about being called a Nazi because although I don’t like it much, I’ve been called worse.
What emerged over the course of the weekend were very important questions (and a few answers) about my lifestyle and the extent to which it’s become out of harmony with some of my core values, in particular nonviolence and respect for life.
Aligning values and lifestyle
There are several dimensions to our lives and whenever some of the elements are not aligned there’s an inner conflict. For example when I say something I know to be untrue then I’ll probably experience some inner conflict because it’s not aligned with my value for honesty.
When I can catch the signs of inner conflict then I can take action. Some of these conflicts, though, are not so obvious and they lurk under the surface of my awareness. They may appear from time to time and if I don’t listen then I deny or ignore them. As long as things are not aligned and the conflict unresolved, I carry the tension with me.
Who knows what unhealed physical, emotional or psychological wounds they then create?
The strength of my reaction to Steve’s article was a clear signal of some unexamined stuff within me and Steve’s words were simply a catalyst.
I could have chosen to blame Steve and continue to exclaim ‘How dare he call me a Nazi… ‘. Not a particularly useful approach in my quest to get continually less stupid as I get older. Instead, I did the intelligent thing and took it as sign that some things I’m not aware of are not aligned as I’d like them to be.
What I buy and consume
I choose not to eat meat of any kind but I do eat eggs. I buy most of my food from the supermarket and that includes a range of dairy products. I rarely pay much attention to the source of the food I buy. I rarely pay much attention to the source of ANYTHING I buy or consume.
Until now, that is.
EVERYTHING I buy or consume comes from somewhere. It has a history.
Not a factory farm
I can’t get away from the fact that much of the animal-source produce in the supermarket comes from factory farms. I’ve never been in factory farm but I’m guessing they’re not idyllic places full of fluffy, contented animals and rosy faced young milk maids.
I’m also assuming, judging from the chick video, that they are violent places with little respect for the life of the animals.
Eggs are just one small example. Chickens are hatched and immediately examined. Male chicks are fed directly into the meat grinder and female chicks are kept alive to become living egg factories.
Can anyone tell me this is respectful of life and nonviolent?
What I can no longer avoid is that whenever I eat food from this source I take some of that violence and disrespect into my body. I support the system that produces food in this way – both the factory farms and the supermarkets by voting with my stomach and my wallet.
Lifestyle revolution
We all draw the boundaries of our lifestyle differently and it is not for me to judge anyone else for their choices.
If I’m genuinely committed to nonviolence and respect for life then I have to live my whole life on this foundation, and not pick and choose according to what’s most convenient. I can’t continue to stick my head in the sand and pretend it’s OK for me to be part of these systems.
I’m on the verge of a lifestyle revolution where the boundaries of what I can accept for myself have shifted. For my own well being I want to align all the decisions I make against my core values.
And this means paying attention to the sources of the things I buy and consume. It affects, among other things, the food I eat, the clothes I wear, the places I visit and how I get around.
I don’t yet have a clear picture of what this all means but I do know that shopping is not going to be the same again.
I’m guessing many things will start to change now.
Why do I hate Steve Pavlina?
He single handedly destroyed a whole set of delusions and has thrown into disarray my nice convenient way of life where I could get everything I needed at low cost at my local supermarket.
If I try this now I’m going to be haunted by an image of newly born chicks being thrown into a meat grinder.
Thanks a lot Steve!
