The vegan bulldozer

When meeting people who are not eager to hear what we have to say, it’s easy to blow it. But if we are affable enough we can bulldoze them - some chutzpah can work as long as we maintain a sense of humour and some familiarity, (this after all is a serious yet intimate subject). We don’t have to be best buddies with everyone, we just need to build mutual respect and emphasise the need for equality of status. If we’re open to their views, it’s more likely they’ll try to listen to what we have to say.
‘Out there’ there is genuine interest. People want to know what we eat, they want to know what a vegan diet is, even what our views are. They might ask provocative questions, and for this they’ll put up with a bit of cheek, even to the point where we can send them up for eating ‘dead animals’, but . . . there’s a hairsbreadth between friendly chat and us making value-judgements of them. Maybe vegans feel, out of loyalty to the animals, that we should be deadly serious and confront people where ever we can – as if to show how deeply we feel. But once we get heavy we stop them identifying with us and they begin to lose interest in what we’re saying. Passing on information laden with judgement (and statistics) is dull. It’s confronting. And even worse when we change the ‘temperature’ by withdrawing something that shouldn’t be withdrawn. The spat becomes unfriendly and that’s only justified if someone is hurtful or rude. If we go to all the effort to establish a connection it shouldn’t be broken lightly.
Even if we can’t be buddies we do have to work from a position of equality. We can’t afford to lose anyone to inferiority or superiority – that would be such a wasted opportunity. We must be seen to respect all views as valid (even the wrong ones!) until proven otherwise. Serious conversation is still only a discussion in which everyone must feel free to disagree or concede. It isn’t a competition or an excuse to spark bad feelings, and for our part we must try never to withdraw on someone or leave another person behind. However far apart our views may be our feelings for each other shouldn’t be compromised. By keeping the human to human connection open we remain simply two individuals chatting. Or it might be a vegan speaking to a room full of strangers, but as long as some level of affection is maintained the interaction is alive. It’s a sort of professionalism setting the standard for our relationships and the reputation of the cause we represent.
The best teachers at school never lose sight of their responsibility to the students in their care. They might stand no nonsense from their students but they never withdraw their affection for them. And that’s how it should be with the Animal Rights activist: everything we say, unpopular, grim or otherwise, must be presented without zealotry. If we’re asked to explain something, we need answers. And if we don’t know something there has to be an intention to find out and feed back. We break our own rules when we hide behind our lack of expertise by becoming emotional and start raving on about cruelty, as if no one knew it existed. On one level people are very well informed – most adults know more or less what’s going on out there - but what they don’t know are the details. And presumably we do, otherwise we wouldn’t be so keen to talk about it. So, in their eyes we should have some useful information to impart. And that’s why we should be prepared.