Alone

1599: 

Let’s face it, vegans are a tiny minority. We are outsiders and will remain so until substantial numbers of people start to take veganism seriously. It’s debilitating to be alone, so we form groups to give us a better chance of survival. A movement builds and everyone talks about how-it-could-be. We never talk about the loneliness of individuals holding a radical viewpoint and being alienated because of it. Some individuals put aside their social isolation and get enthusiastic for gaining some status within the group. In my own experience, I’ve found that groups narrow down to committees which then lose sight of the original target, and becoming a group push (for exposing some of the most terrible animal abuses). I’ve noticed that the individual activist gets forgotten about, the emotional support-network becomes weaker. Instead all energy goes towards a frantic attempt to finance on-going projects. That would have it’s own rewards if there were any successes but often there are none. And at each failure, we feel resentful. What else can we do but continue to attack the Animal Industry. But this is so amorphous that it virtually includes everybody, producers, retailers and consumers alike. In reality, most people have ways of not responding to the horror stories and the Industry simply doesn't care. But it is the consumer we need to target, because our best hope is that we can help people make better shopping choices as part of their own consciousness raising.

         

We may feel isolated and 'out on a limb' but, as vegans, we must never lose sight of the fact that our own consciousness has been raised for the purpose of better empathising with animals. The ordinary consumer knows a little about us, that we feel strongly about animals and eating meat. They probably know the writing is on the wall, and that eventually they will have to change their attitudes to these animal slaves we keep on farms. Soon enough, most people will be clear about unethical abuses of animals. But there's still a lot of confusion about meat being unhealthy. As vegans, we probably won't be able to prove how dangerous animal-eating is, but we will have an impact if we let people know how unethical animal farming is. Most omnivores can handle doing something that’s not healthy but are less able to accept that they’re doing something morally wrong, like eating these sadly abused and often unhealthy animals. They will be ready to agree that veggies are healthier, but this only to divert attention from what they feel most guilty about - the caging and the killing.

This is where we could start to make an impact, when we emphasise empathy and sensitivity and a general softening of attitude. We may feel lonely and exiled from normal social life because of our opposition to the ways of the omnivore, but we know it's a waiting game we play. Others are still a long way from considering another’s feelings when that 'other' is not a human. As vegans, we are waiting for the penny to drop, waiting for them to see what we have seen and respond to that the way we have done.

In the end it comes down to the impossibility for almost anyone to condone cruelty, when they see pictures of a frightened young lamb being manhandled into the killing chute or a tiny new born chick being thrown away as so much rubbish - a living creature being gassed to death for being male instead of being (an egg laying) female. The wrongness of this one human behaviour is enough to make sensitive people risk social isolation, when there might be a chance to bring about change. And that change would be a significant alteration in people's attitudes, that would eventually make the whole business of animal farming illegal.