Lightness of being

 598:

We are vegans. Is our view admired? Do people admire our passion? No, not necessarily. They often see us as masochists.

            Do omnivores want to agree with us? No, they certainly don’t, because they can’t see how life could never be fun, if you had to give up so many things, like Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate.

            Maybe vegans have a warped perception of the omnivore mind. Maybe we think they’ll listen to us if we push them hard enough. But it hasn’t worked so far. To date, few of them have gone vegan. Perhaps it’s the seductive ‘sin’ of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk that holds them back? And at this time of the year, Christmas, there’s so much traditional feasting on animals’ bodies and rich animal protein. And yet Christmas fare is irresistible.

            As a percentage of the population (in Australia), vegans are a tiny minority. Hugely tiny. Much tinier than in Europe and North America; but at the other end of the scale, in most countries vegans are almost non-existent. Perhaps things will stay this way for a while yet, till those with money to spend put specific ethical constraints on what they’re willing to buy. Once this notion is communicated to the wider community, social networked, then by boycotting certain things and the up-taking of a lot of other things, things will change.

            I doubt if we’ll start to see signs of permanent change though, until we are tuning into our own conscience. I think empathy is the portal-of-communication to use. And then it’s down to the animal advocate to initiate empathy on as many levels as possible (since we’re the ones trying to raise consciousness in the first place).

            The big difficulty we activists have is in dropping the first weapon to hand - dropping value judgement. This habit of shaming people to get them to see the light is one way, or we can talk carefully and calmly about the issues (concerning animal foods and animal exploitation).

            I believe we’re all angry, outraged, disgusted, etc., but that won’t help the animals. If we want to spring them from jail we have to find a way of impressing the general population, and changing their mind-set. I suppose all activist-vegans feel angry, at some stage. And by turning that anger outwards, to ‘get it out’, often involves making judgements, which in turn widens the gulf we’re trying to narrow.

            It’s hard not to be angry about what’s happening but            , in my own case, I eventually (reluctantly) found out how worthless anger is. It diverts energy from the constructive to its opposite. If we’re serious about getting people to become animal-conscious, we have to transmute the outrage into something like a ‘lightness of being’. The tide may take some time to turn. Patience and its calming effect is needed now more than ever before. The thing I like most about my fellow vegans is that they aren’t people who’ll settle for a ‘sensible compromise’ about animal treatment (whereas most others have done); for us to attempt to break a ‘settlement’ by using any sort of force is plainly ridiculous. Which is why calm patience has to become the main driver of this animal-liberating revolution, because it’s about humans using force.

            I’m sure the main human attitudinal problem stems from having a big brain and a big fist. We’re loyally wired into a heavy collective consciousness. Fashion is the big changer, and in this case an attitudinal fashion change will cut the wiring and strike out for something far less ugly than what we have today.

            I don’t think vegans are only after diet change, we’re surely wanting to help lift a cloud of impatience and restless intolerance amongst our fellow humans. Once a certain pulse of change starts in Society, I imagine it will alter on many attitude levels at once. This sensitisation that vegans are emphasising now will only be part of a much greater sensitivity.