Each individual chooses

1255: 

If I’m attempting to convince the majority that what they’re doing, by using, eating or wearing animals is wrong, I’m also asking them to listen to something attractive they can do instead.  Sometimes we can start in with ethics, at other times, health or food or environment, depending on who we’re talking to.

         

So, maybe we start with this sort of pitch, suggesting that there’s a way to get off unhygienic, disease-ridden and appallingly unhealthy foods by simply eating from a plant-base, which takes us immediately away from being involved in the horrendous animal crimes.  Most people will expect us to mention health and animal cruelty, but (as the ads tell us) “there’s much more!”.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of becoming vegan is the self respect we can develop from pulling away from the brainwashed habits we’ve inherited.  It makes us feel less like cowards, by not exploiting animals simply because they can’t fight back.     

Veganism stands up for the bullied against the dominant, bullying, self-interested human.  We don’t see animals as a resource.  Vegans don’t turn animals into commodities.

Our lifestyle is cheaper too, simpler perhaps, yet encourages us to be creative with food.  If you eat with vegans, it’s likely you’ll discover new tastes and new dishes, and you'll be surprised at the deliciousness of plant-based foods.  But above all of this, the most significant of the attractions is that we’re in a unique position, where we can recommend repairs that can transform our species and our planet’s future, by the simple expedient of living non-violent lives.  In other words by becoming vegan it allows us to take a brave stand and pave the way for a constructive improvement of human life.

Vegans are brave in what they do in their private lives, and nothing more needs be said.  Unless it is to mention those who go a bit further and are speaking out amidst hostility and ridicule.  It’s so easy to speak with the crowd, but so hard to stand against it.

Effectively we’re selling a new ‘product’, a new attitude and a new awareness, which most people have never really thought about.  To us it may be an attractive philosophy.  But, more importantly, it must appear to be so to others.  And that’s where one's individual character comes in.  However else we may appear to be, vegans must be upbeat.  We must represent long-term-change, not try to dictate it but simply let it show itself, without fanfare.

I don’t want anyone merely to agree with me but to think things through for themselves.  People must be their own judge and jury.