Main stream

In our attempt to get this subject mainstreamed, the decision to ‘go-unfriendly’ (whilst discussing it) is amazingly counter-productive. We ‘do’ anger at our peril. In this free-willed world, a vegan can easily end up being a person not worth talking to. People can actually dislike us, not just because we represent something totally antagonistic to their whole way of life but because they can’t identify with us as people to look up to. If we’re unfriendly types we pose a threat. And it’s so unnecessary too.
If we feel marginalised, isolated even cast out from the normal going-on of our society, because we’re vegan, oh that’s a rotten feeling. It’s a bit like being sent to Coventry, not being spoken to or in our case not having our lifestyle recognised as valid. Yes, vegans are made to feel like weird outsiders, “Who probably suffer from some inexplicable condition that makes them the way they are”. To make ourselves feel better we denigrate the omnivore, and so on. But this isn’t one way traffic. They suffer from us. We know we don’t feel guilt about abattoirs any more, and they do. We tell them that. And that makes many omnivores feel terrible. “Good”, we say, “That will teach them”. And we half believe that all omnivores are and will be cast as ‘evil-doers’, mainly because of their food choices.
The ill feeling between the two ‘sides’ is preposterous of course, and it’s only there because we’re cowards – we’re unwilling to ‘bring it on’. We’re afraid of talking about it. So, there’s no discussion. Vegans won’t do their homework so their hearts are full of compassion but their heads are empty of detailed facts and interesting arguments. And because we won’t settle down to our studies we choose to ‘get out there’ and show the bastard omnivores what shits they are.
Is it any wonder that omnivores are scared of us. Or they would be did they not hide behind the skirts of disinterest. All we can do is revert to the tactics of our forefathers and go to war with each other. And we all know where wars take us!
My belief is, and I sincerely hope I’m out of touch and therefore wrong, is that vegans are intelligent enough to be vegan yet not intelligent enough to do their homework, to read the subject, to plan their own personal approach to Animal Rights … the upshot of this being that we vegans are not able to discuss our own subject, adequately to convince some pretty brainwashed but nevertheless pretty bright cookies who still ‘do’ the animal thing. We aren’t sure of our case.
Maybe we’re bewildered as to how to proceed. We’d like to bring up the subject and get practice at talking specific issues through with people. But there is no theatre available for rehearsals, and that’s because no one dares to talk to us. Ideally we vegans would like to talk abot our subject just as evalhgelical Chrisians want to talk about the Bible, heck we even want to be able to bring it up casually as one would bring up the weather, but it doesn’t happen. Why? Because we’re still tuned into judgement.
The relaxedness of one’s conversation is the mark of a good one. They say “Never talk sex, drugs or politics”, and we could easily add “Animal Rights” to that list. You know what it’s like discussing politics, it gets heated. It gets into the policies of opposites and party loyalties. It’s the same but more so with ethical debates. Especially when we come to our most private and individual decision of the day, what we will eat. So this huge ethical question of animal-use is a seriously serious subject. How casual can we be talking about it? How unlike a fundamentalist evangelical can we appear to be? Vegans try to find the right casual tone for their voice then they try to apply it to the details of their argument. So far so good. But we stop. Vegans stop there and can’t lighten up. We don’t disassociate from serious moral tone, and we could if we spoke calmly with confidence and a secret glow that we DID read the whole of “that book” or watched the whole of that DVD. We can lighten up whilst still talking seriously, keeping it short, letting a friend know what you have just been reading or watching. That’s all. No sermon, Just wait for the questions. And they will come if we don’t hurry them. With the question comes permission. Then we can start teaching. Discussion with omnivores is possible.
Or is it?