Squirming at home

Meanwhile back at the ranch, in our kitchens or out doing the shopping, it’s food we’re mainly thinking about. ‘Food for the week’. Even if we’ve just been listening to ‘a very interesting talk on the radio with a vegan’, and been impressed by their arguments, even if we’re currently unhappy about our own eating habits ... Get real. Today is today and we’ve got enough to do without taking on this one too. (Going-vegan would be like adopting a stray dog!). Soon enough the omnivore (in us) pulls back to where we were before ... before hearing that radio program - back to the familiar, the comforts.
Whatever a vegan’s intention, to actually get others to agree is difficult because omnivores are addicted to their foods. But on another level there’s an equal difficulty - the hidden agenda, where we vegans like to show we are vegans. Which implies that we are better than them. If we do have a hidden agenda, if there’s a ‘hidden’ trait common to vegans, does it need weeding out? Perhaps I’m suggesting that no amount of bull-in-a-china-shop activism is necessarily going to be effective, not concerning this hyper-sensitive subject anyway. It is the BIG taboo-subject after all.
I hope we fail to win devotees. I hope we fail, if we try to secure a permanent habit change in even one reluctant omnivore. Vegan is not a dictatorship. The only person watching what we’re eating or using is ourselves (or, if we’re children, our parents). It signals the importance of our subject that it’s not easy come-easy go. We’re bound to be roundly ignored at first (and this is a very early stage we’re at in animal rights awareness). So, we’re ignored ... so then we push back harder, scream louder ...all to absolutely no effect! The weight of the collective consciousness is so phenomenal that no one fact or shameful image can stir the dragon of conscience, even in one individual if they themselves aren’t willing.
So how do we approach other people? How do we win them over when we’re NOT trying to convert them?
No glib one-liner will do to answer that very central question. Cynicism and suspicion abound for all new ideas and causes. The push for new members is promoted by every good cause in the world, and there are many of them. We are all trying to convince people – so far, veganism hasn’t yet taken on. Nor will it if we get a reputation for preaching, judging or evangelising.