Imprinting the idea

1085: 

Talking to someone about Animal Rights/veganism/plant-based diets, etc.  I want to say my piece, but how do I say it?  What voice do i use and what about body language in general?  What do I do with my face?  Do I smile, to show you how friendly I am?  Perhaps that’s dangerous, since it could be seen to be ingratiating, false.  But essentially, I do want you to think I’m friendly and non-judgemental. I don’t want to scare you off.  Or for you to see through me, or see my smile masking a disapproval of you.

We vegans, who think we know all about food, should realise that many omnivores know about food too, in as much as they know what they like and believe that they are what they eat.  So, it’s really up to us to see you as a fast-tracking, observant human being.  We need to bend over backwards to acknowledge how difficult animal issues might be for you.  We have to show willing to have our arguments critically assessed by you, and not rubbish your opinions.  We aren’t asking people to agree with us, we just want people to think for themselves; to think about animal issues and arrive at their own conclusions.

           

Up here in the clouds, we vegans can easily forget how hard were the changes we made, when ‘going vegan’.  And now, down the track, we might be saying ‘Going vegan is simple’.  But that mightn’t be true for many of us; it might have been like an alcoholic giving up drink.  For some of us it meant making a massive decision, sparked mainly (but not only) by compassion for farm animals.

The omnivore is faced with a massive number of (mainly) food temptations, many of them derived from animal based foods.  And then we come along, talk about big ideas and all sorts of frightening things to do with health consequences, animal cruelty and environmental impacts.  We create another reality which jars against the reality of the ‘normal’, familiar, day-to-day world.  What we say is quickly forgotten - it’s like coming out of a movie feeling pumped by the whole emotional impact of what we’ve just seen, and then later on the details fading, after having been carried away by what we’d seen.

           

With new ideas and attitudes, if they aren’t examined and digested thoroughly at the time, the power of them fades too quickly.  Nothing consolidates deeply enough, so we don’t get around to making the big changes suggested by the big idea.  We revert back to safe-old, lifestyle habits and attitudes.

Whatever vegans are saying, our ideas need to be imprinted, and that might take some time and some skill.