1126:
Grr. I might be seen as
crazy, whacky, war mongering, and hating people who believe that animals must
be sacrificed to make food available to make life easier and safer. Anyone who
puts up any opposition to my arguments, like ‘the majority’, are enemy - they
want their supplies of ‘normal’ foods and normal medicines and dread the idea
of living according to vegan principles. Probably that’s a rather immature
approach!
But just for the moment none
of this matters. I don’t mind so much being seen this way if it only leads to
my being side-lined. It’s true, that most people turn a blind eye to animal
suffering ... but that also means they’re not paying much attention to what the
Animal Rights activists are up to,
leaving us to go about our business, uninterrupted.
The fact is that these are
early days. We needn’t expect people to change their natures overnight (and by
overnight I mean within a brief span of fifty years). These habits of using
animals are so deeply ingrained in people’s lifestyles, spanning thousands of
years (but gradually getting crueller and nastier over this past half century)
that it is still seen as normal. It’s normal to enslave and kill animals for
whatever purpose we have for them. Very few are even aware that there IS a ‘movement’
advocating that animals deserve ‘rights’. The fact that animals might not
deserve to be farmed and killed for food has never crossed most people’s minds.
This unawareness is not
entirely a bad thing, since there’s so much ground work to be done by animal
advocates, before we can make any substantial ground with the general public.
If there was a lot of controversy in the media we’d be hard pressed energywise,
defending our position, whereas in the relative silence we can keep our
energies intact. Our efforts could so easily be wasted, tilting at windmills,
protesting to no effect.
This is an age of
preparation. Our movement is largely ignored. Apart from a general, sloppy
aggro image we’ve acquired, no great harm is being done to our movement. We are
being largely ignored, yes, but also left alone to mature and get our heads
around the bigger picture, to prepare for when our ideas start to find
traction.
The
fact is, no one wants to draw
attention to animals having rights or people needing to have a vegan diet. The
media won’t high-profile this subject since they don’t want to offend their
advertisers or customers. And on T.V. you’ll never see an Animal Rights
activist being interviewed, because there’s a danger of making the interviewer
look either stupid or cold hearted (with our potentially razor-sharp
arguments!)
As time goes on, as the A.R.
movement grows, things will change, and then, at some point, probably change
rather too rapidly. We might not be prepared for it ... which is why I’m suggesting
that it’s a fine time for ground work. It’s good for us to learn about
effectiveness and public perception and getting to know how people’s minds
work.
Today, the use of animals is
NOT being talked about either round the dinner table or in the public glare of
TV. But it’s all there on-line, information available for those who want it. On
web sites, in chat rooms it is being discussed. People are wising up, at the
same time as the Animal Industry persuasions are becoming less convincing.
So far the Animal Rights
movement is information rich but not so good at imparting that information.
Perhaps the time is not yet ripe, but even if it were, we still need to come a
lot closer to those we’re speaking with. The “I-hate-all-omnivores” baggage is still
screwing things up.
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