Why vegans go out on a limb

1060: 

Being vegan. It’s nice to belong - to be amongst people one can identify with.  People who are special, and we all want to be amongst those we regard as special, to feel special.  We like being special to our family, to our circle of friends.  Most of all we’d like to be special to our whole town, and what we wouldn’t give to be ‘special’-famous in our own country?  The bigger the group that 'knows us and respects us’ the more special we feel.  Some people sell their soul for fame, for the recognition of their society - but what a let down when you realise that it’s always conditional on remaining loyal to a whole set of rather dodgy values.         

In one very important way, our big group, what we call Society, is desperately flawed, and if we can’t approve some of the most fundamental values of our society, then we have to do without its approval, recognition, etc.  We have to, in fact, move away from it, not geographically but ‘spiritually’.  And if we do that, we can expect people’s deliberate misunderstanding of us, which naturally isn’t pleasant.  Indeed, we must be prepared to experience the opposite of approval.  Being an outspoken vegan in our society is the kiss-of-death to social ambition.  We end up feeling socially alienated.  No one likes being excluded, and no one wants to feel like a freak.

Yet vegans accept all this, standing against their society, awaiting the chance to explain why. 

           

Our ‘rather peculiar’ take on things does attract some attention. Sometimes it arouses curiosity from people with conscience.  But mostly, there will be nothing.  No notice will be taken.  Vegans may look the same, talk the same, behave the same, until we speak out against Society’s acceptance of violence against animals.  And then we are harshly judged.  We no longer ‘belong’.