Hubris

Having a discussion with an omnivore about football is easy, about veganism more difficult. The main gates may be shut. The approach road may be long. The great stronghold of Normal Behaviour (which most certainly includes eating animals) is almost unreachable. We’re only able to get in by sweet talk, nah, let’s call it ‘discussion’. If they won’t be sweet-talked, if entry is refused into their omnivorous stockade, then we end up stuck out on the open road, immobile. It’s enough to put anyone off. In fact vegans get so pissed off by this shut-out mentality that most often we want to retire back to our enclaves ... “and fuck the world outside”.
How to get past this? Could we look at it this way? We stand before the world, unnoticed but upright. We know who we are, in as much as we base our life on the application of a central universal principle. Others might too, who stand up for great causes. We may have that in common - feeling marginalised. But the difference here is that it’s likely they enjoy some notice. We enjoy almost none … and naturally so, because we stand at the farthest extreme of all extremes. We point to a future unimaginable. Veganism, as a future modus operandi, is beyond the reach of most peoples’ present consciousness. For them to recognise us would mean they recognise the wisdom of acting beyond self-interest.
Why do vegans do what they do? They act, live and work for abused animals, not even abused humans. Most peoples’ primal species-loyalty act as their chief barrier to ‘considering animals. Most people have never felt cross-species empathy.
Some people, however, are now defining their lives by their non-speciesism and because of that they get nothing but bewildered looks from people. For this reason vegans can’t possibly expect to be noticed or admired. Perhaps it’s true to say that people do not actually condemn us but we are socially set aside.
Vegans have to be able to handle this. We reside on ‘the fringes’. We are the lepers from Outsiderdom. For us, in these present times, being outcast is unavoidable. That’s a given. On the up-side, vegans can take great comfort from being immune to hubris and therefore from inevitable failure, since it’s always hubris that scuppers any good idea. For that reason alone vegans are destined to succeed. And more importantly animals are destined to be freed as a result of our success.