Vegan principle

1045: 

I’ve got a friend overseas (who I write to regularly about all this) and he dislikes the idea of veganism - but it’s the ‘ism’ bit he hates.  Perhaps he’s right.  ‘Isms’ sound a bit like religion, and really ‘vegan’ isn’t anything other than a principle which combines plain good sense with compassion.   Vegans leap at the chance to introduce ‘all this’, because we want others to have access to something we’ve ‘picked up’, that’s mainly to our own advantage.  It isn’t a wish to boast  ... but that’s the trouble here ... that’s how other people often perceive ‘all this’ and our wanting to talk about it. 

Non-vegans see us as masochists or, more generously, our ‘going vegan’ to be all about self-discipline.  But to us it’s all-benefit, and we’ll always want to make that clear.

           

It’s very hard to shine a light on something ‘self-disciplined’ without looking too shiny about it.  If what I do looks like altruism I’m necessarily showing off, because it’s the opposite of selfishness, which is always ugly.  It’s very hard not to look smug about being so ‘sensible and compassionate’.  The omnivore will giggle (rather nervously) at the strictness of our lifestyle.  And then dismiss it.  But we look at it quite differently, seeing what we eat as the most satisfying food.  Our ‘ism’ gives us an interesting goal-for-life, and that’s because we’re showing a care for farm animals, and generally looking out for others, etc.

Certainly, all this can sound smug.  Difficult too.  But maybe life for vegans is a bit edgier.  We push ourselves at a greater pace, to learn about things which are being kept hidden from the general pubic.  We’ll want to investigate and expose and inform.  Does that sound smug, again?  It’s difficult not to come across like that, and if it looks altruistic then it’s nothing more than common sense with a dash of kindness thrown in for good measure, on behalf of the oppressed.