Strong beliefs but neutral emotions

1288: 

The abattoir is perhaps the most ugly institution we have in our society.  And the abattoir mentality is therefore particularly ugly because it’s the one routine violence almost every person is involved with.  The tragedy of this universal participation is that completely unnecessary.

Vegans aim to get this across, while maintaining their love of animals and people alike.  We aim to shift this attitudinal Goliath, but to do it without using any sort of force or violence ourselves.  The trouble is, that traditionally, when you want to make a point strongly you often resort to forceful language.  And any perceived use of force simply looks ridiculous when addressing the almost-total population, when criticising the behaviour of almost everyone.  So, to get our point across, we have to find some other way.

It’s easy to get steamed up about cruelty to animals, so we have to remind ourselves NEVER to harass people into agreeing with us, but instead to encourage people to begin thinking for themselves.  No guilt, no push, no aggro, no high moral platforms, just an accentuation of the positive mixed with well documented information.  Most people, having both a capacity for loving and being loved, just need to be consciously extended to embrace non-humans.

Most vegans have a strong urge to be rescuers of animals.  It’s something most people would sympathise with.  But the floating ship runs aground when it comes to ‘food’ animals, the ones people like to use for food.  Perhaps we can only attempt to persuade people by the words we use, by using kind words about unkind behaviours.  If we don’t go in gently, there’s a danger that we’ll fall into the classic trap, where our arguments are simply off-putting.  To avoid this, our approach mustn’t seem to be judgemental or insulting.  And if in the past we’ve seemed to regard ourselves as superior, that must be exploded too.

Anything even vaguely approaching the “I’m vegan, how about you?” sort of comment, will only entrench hostility in people.  It’s hardly surprising, that in this modern world moralising doesn’t work because it’s connected to the old fashioned preacher threatening retribution for sinning; if we get a reputation for being boring or predictable, we’ll undo a lot of the fine work others have done on behalf of Animal Rights.

So, we jettison slogans like “Meat is Murder”.  Although it’s true enough, the impact is never quite how we expect it to be.  We are effectively accusing people; what we’re really saying is “YOU are a murderer if you eat meat” and that sounds like an attack.

We can’t shock or bludgeon people into change.  As soon as we make a value judgement like this, the shutters come down, and we can expect to be counter-judged with something like, “What bitter bastards you vegans are!”  And that effectively puts an end to any meaningful communication.