Non Separation

1059: 

Being associated with the Animal Rights movement or the vegan movement requires a big commitment. There’s so much ground work to be done by so few people.

To keep up our drive, we need to have a high frustration threshold, because almost everyone is opposed to what we are saying, although they might not tell us so. Instead, they ignore us and hope we’ll go away. Of course we won’t, despite being buried under an avalanche of indifference.

No other activists, in minority groups, put themselves up against such a brick wall which almost everyone is building, either by eating animals or wearing them or using them in some other exploitative way. Most adults are aware that what happens to animals is ugly. They know it but don’t want to be reminded of it. They see vegan animal advocates as a thorn in their side. As a group we are not popular but within this small grouping of people there are different approaches and lots of disagreeing. Each of us believes their own way of ‘breaking through to resistant people’ is the best way.

Inevitably, antipathy exists between individual activists. We’re not unlike any other political group, in that way. But  perhaps it’s worse for vegans, working for Animal Rights, because we’re such a tiny percentage of the overall population, especially here in Australia. The realities of ‘animal activism’ are hard enough on a personal level, so what I’m suggesting here is that we don’t need to add to our considerable present-day difficulties, by distancing ourselves too far from each other or from the wider omnivore population.

           

The aim, after all, is to connect NOT to draw apart. If we ever feel superior to others, whether they’re fellow vegans or our adversaries, we need to be careful not to become separate. In separating we make ourselves look morally superior. It’s not a good look and none of us can afford to be an island.