Shocking facts

509: I wonder how a ‘known animal activist’ comes across – as when I meet a mate in the street. How do I seem to a non-vegan? I smile and even hug, and say, “How are you?” and do it without thinking. There’s talk, conversation, nice vibes ... until I allow the talk to wander into dangerous territory. You know what they say about sex, politics and religion. Well, we could send the same warning to me, when I try to talk Animal Rights to anyone. The atmosphere changes. And when it does, I walk into the same trap every time - I think to myself, “I’ve got a lot to say on this subject”. And I wait for the right opportunity to say it. But should I? I might say something controversial, and see how they react (notice how I’m already assuming our light hearted chat in the street is becoming a ‘deep and meaningful’). Let’s just imagine that I say something. The subject is aired. My main job is not necessarily to deliver my Animal Rights spiel, but to watch my tongue. And attend to how I seem, what mood I seem to be in. I’m asking myself if I can say what I have to say and yet stay calm, and yet speak strongly, but not too strongly ... it’s a balancing act. The last thing I want is for them to change the subject. So, this is what I try to do: avoid sermons and any hint of personal attacking. I avoid slogans. I calm-talk in order to cement my good intentions and peaceful priorities. And I keep it short and neat, because I think more is communicated by understatement than diatribe. I also notice when my favourite ‘shock-facts’ are brought out, they can seem stale if they’ve been heard before. So, all in all I’m trying NOT to be a Bible-basher quoting scripture. Whenever I try to persuade people I fail. I always make it look like a conversion rally. I doubt if I’ll ever succeed in getting anybody to think deeply about what they don’t want to think about. But here’s a thing. Let us assume conscience is strong in everybody. I might be wrong about that. If vegans have a more comfortable relationship with their conscience it might be that animal-eaters don’t so much because conscience no longer call the shots. My point is this, that conscience might be easily overridden whenever it interferes with ‘important comforts’ (like acquiring necessary animal food and clothing). Remnants of conscience are always present and even more so when it’s just a sleeping conscience. Vegans attempt to stir the collective conscience by encouraging people to think for themselves and, I would say, letting them find their own way minus our conversion tactics. If I were to say to you, “What is your main problem in life?” It could be that we simply can’t stop ourselves overriding our conscience. Doing wrong when you should be doing right, etc The best example of this overriding of conscience is shown when we buy eggs. Everyone knows about ‘Hens in Cages’, even kids. But it’s not necessarily ‘thought about’, and so it’s not acted upon. In main stream media hardly anything is ever mentioned about animal issues (because almost everybody is too busy eating them to want to make it an issue in the first place). Most people are nowhere near boycotting animal products, and in reality, they buy things every day that, upon closer examination, they wouldn’t possibly approve of. But if that’s so, then nothing can be gained by me going around exposing peoples’ guilty habits. The only thing I can do is to get people used to thinking for themselves. And all this I have to try to do surreptitiously, since the last thing we need to do is embarrass our adversaries. It only causes them to dig their heels in deeper.