The judgement trap

Just about everyone knows how vegans view the world but how do vegans view themselves? Perhaps we think being vegan is pretty much how everyone should be, morally speaking and health wise, but the danger is that vegans will seem as though they’re looking down from a height, perhaps boastfully, as if we are better than others. And if we think that way we might feel entitled to judge others who don’t think that way. And if we can’t get people to agree with us voluntarily we may use value judgement as a weapon against their complaisance. If we resort to this sort of moral force, it can be seen as a subtle form of violence or aggression. It’s as if we are violating the freedom of choice, when that choice is regarded by almost everyone, the law included, as acceptable.
From an outsider’s point of view there’s something about a holier-than-thou person that is distinctly unattractive and needing to be ‘brought down to size’. Anyone who thinks themselves better, whether cleverer, wealthier, better looking or more righteous, is unattractive, simply because they seem so self satisfied.
If vegans refuse to be judgemental it changes everything. They have a quality which others can admire, mainly because it isn’t in their face. And that counts for a lot, despite it seeming to us as being too passive. Vegans often feels that if they aren’t up front that they’re being apologetic about being vegans. We’re more used to the stridency of putting our arguments into circulation, causing a disturbance to attract attention, laying it on the line. But that’s been done, and it hasn’t had enough of the right sort of impact to build momentum amongst the general population. Animal rights has a reputation of exposing the truth but no acceptable currency in the public’s mind, and we have to ask why. Is it perhaps that the vegan extreme is more than people can take on board? And are we giving people a ready made excuse to avoid the truth we present by letting them think badly of us as judgmental evangelicals?
For us there are two positions to think about here: can we afford to be a benign presence and yet still an activist who isn’t a threat or an embarrassment to others? And can our self image be acceptable to us as a vegan activist who knows our own strengths and doesn’t need to prove our self by using judgement? We are surely stronger all round, to us and to others, if we have a completely non-violent image. As low as we might be on society’s ladder, we must know that our vegan principle is an inner strength. It doesn’t let us down, it is there to support us when we don’t seem to be making an impact, and it can only dissolve if we have to boast about it. In other words we remain positive and strong as long as we never think of others as being ‘below’ us.