Softies

528:

If I, as a vegan, wear my heart on my sleeve, if I’m thought to be soft-hearted, then how does that go down with non-vegans?

            Perhaps it’s like wearing a persona non grata badge. In our society life’s difficult for softies. So the softy, sickened by being put down, attempts to win kudos, even admiration. But in doing that we only enter an impossible trap. When we spend time trying to achieve difficult things and find that nobody notices, we start to boast about what we’ve done.

            To the outsider it’s such a big turn-off. (In Australia, rule-number-one is to never ‘big-note’ yourself). Boasting looks like a desperate attempt to get noticed. It shows a lack of self-assurance. We try to attract attention, to force approval or at least ‘milk’ a compliment. Our need for others to recognise us, praise us or even emulate our example, is a form of force. Whether by way of blackmail or persuasion, it’s obvious that if we are needy in that way we will pay a high price.

            There’s a central principle at stake here. However much we want to be noticed or have people take what we say seriously, I don’t think any of us have a right to enter another person’s heart or mind without their permission. Our own righteous self-justification doesn’t amount to a ticket to enter … and when we are rebuffed, many of us stand behind the skirts of Animal Rights and poke fun at passers by - if you can’t join them, beat them.

            If we are ever to amount to anything beyond food freaks, it will have to be for our contribution to peace-making, communication and our having the courage of our convictions. If we need a morale boost it might have to come from within, from our empathy for enslaved animals, and not from the admiration of non-vegans.