The time is right now

599: 

Disapproval seems like a common weapon we use when we’re badly pissed off about something. Vegans don’t like what we see and we don’t like being silenced, and therefore we also don’t like the omnivore’s intolerance of us. In turn, we disapprove of them and, in return, they hit back ... and so it goes, in circles. Vegans have to break that circle, take a lead, hard though it be.

            I’m always disappointed, along with other animal activists, that we aren’t making enough impact. But as a body we’re divided along classical lines, as to how far we go and what to emphasise. Some want total- others partial-non-use of animals. Added to this, we’re divided over what approach to take, when talking ‘animals’. There are those who go in hard and there are those who favour the softer approach. The most outraged and bravest vegans initially go ‘hard-on’, mainly to impress their colleagues and show themselves how determined and committed they are. Later the cracks appear in the fabric of our ‘hard-on’ approach.

            But then how effective is the other way? How does it look to our co-activists, being a ‘softy’? Or how effective is it in the ‘attacking-of-sensibilities’ stakes? How effective do you think you are, that’s the ultimate question after all, how effective, whenever you get into the thick of this subject?

            Vegans know very well what they want from people, that The People will rise up against misinformation and dangerous food products. We want the Many Others to come to their senses. But most people aren’t in that sort of mood, just yet. They can’t see the bigger picture they’re part of, or drop the traditional foods they like to eat. Nor can they know at this time in their personal lives, that at each step away from a conventional mind-set there’s a subtle-at-first-but-later-so-obvious realisation, that from every point onwards discomfort lessens.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, things could hardly be going better for the purveyors of animal-based products, knowing that customers will always demand yummy foods.

            All we vegans can do is promote cruelty-free products ... and encourage people to boycott animal products. The odds are against us because of the high price of imported goods, which have to be brought into this country (Australia) because there isn’t a big enough market to warrant them being produced here. If you want a Mars Bar you pay $1 at Woolworths. The equivalent cruelty-free bar is four times the price. Cruelty-free products are priced for the smaller-market, and that’s the big problem for many of us on limited incomes. But little by little, as the cruelty-free companies grow and can reduce prices and sell more, the wheel will turn. In the meantime we have to keep pushing on and (small price to pay) learn to do-without, because of this on-going problem, finding that vegan alternatives simply aren’t available.

            Presently the animal industries are enjoying raking it in. They know what customers want and how much they’ll tolerate to get it. But as health concerns and moral outrage increases, so the idea of alternative food regimens might then come to be more widely considered.