1904:
If we ever hear someone say, “I’ve never been clear what
vegans stand for. Is it a health or religion thing?” The answer has to go
through a couple of stages to make any sense to them. That’s because it really
isn’t about health and religion as much as it is about sentient animals, suffering
at the hands of humans. We can explain that it’s a matter of the ethics of not
using animals because it isn’t necessary, and therefore that it shouldn’t be
happening. If we can get to that point, and feel our questioner understands, we
might then go on to talk about the farmer.
The humans, who are in direct contact with animals, producing
from them, making a living from farming them, are likely to compromise animal welfare
standards, to stay in business. The more competition there is from other
producers the more likely cruel husbandry methods will be used to keep
production costs to a minimum, to reduce competition. Because of this, all
animal products are tainted. For those of us avoiding them altogether, there
are beneficial offshoots where ‘health and religion’ come in. We eat nutritious
foods from which we derive our well-being, and the spiritual benefits come with
leading non-violent lives. But whenever we hear a person asking a question – why vegan?, that’s a reminder for us not
to lump every non-vegan into the same basket. We are all different, at
different stages of awareness and freedom to change. Which is why vegans don’t
need to lay any blanket judgements on those who aren’t yet ready to see things our
way.
I once attended a talk on veganism and the speaker made the
mistake of asking the audience to raise their hands if they were ‘vegans’,
leaving those who didn’t raise their hands feeling profoundly uncomfortable,
and perhaps wishing they’d never shown up.
When vegans are around, how do we make people feel? Perhaps
it’s a cornered-rat feeling. So, as animal advocates often carrying reputations
of others’ making, we need to ease the situation. We need to step aside from
our need to set the moral standards right, and simply mention Morality which tells
people it’s okay to use animals. By the way we say that we show which side of
the fence we are on. A lot can be done with body language, neutral facial
features, letting ourselves be receptive, listening and watching, being
all-ears and not-being patronising. Patience is useful here, proving we are not
wanting to pounce, or defeat our adversary. In fact right-at-this-point isn’t
the time to be passing on our views
or our values. At this point, we need to find out if a
person is receptive. Or to put it as crudely as I possibly can, it’s no good
the dog fucking the bitch if she’s not on heat.
Omnivores encountering vegans will give off certain signals.
And we pick them up just as subconsciously as they signal them to us. Our
reaction to those signals marks us down as trustworthy or not. End of.
Sometimes, if this subject crops up, I very often take the
initiative to close it down, suspecting that it was probably their good manners that allowed them to
bring the subject up in the first place, not out of interest but out of respect
for me. Therefore, I might return the courtesy by saying (but only in my
thoughts to myself), “Yes, I read your signals, and I see you’re not ready for
this.”
Our backing-off from a volatile situation is good strategy,
if nothing else. If we can sense an embarrassing pause in the conversation,
where they are toying with the idea
of either confronting the subject or swerving onto a more fatuous aspect of the
subject, then we know they are about to trivialise something in their minds
which they don’t really think is trivial at all. Since we are interacting with the omnivore we should
know to treat them with caution on matters of conscience. This is where we must
gauge what’s right, and for whom. The object of the exercise is to engage, not
to indulge in the ‘Coming. Ready-or-not’ approach.
All in all, we need to listen to the urban myths, the excuses
and justifications – everything we really don’t want to be listening to. But let’s now have roles – me the vegan,
you the non-vegan. I’m listening to what you’ve got to say even though I
disagree with you completely. Remaining passive feels like I’m betraying the
animals we’re fighting for, just by listening and not ‘putting you right’. But
I’m allowing things to stay as they are for now, because I need to find out as
soon as possible what your view on animal rights is. And very often that is made clear enough by what you might be
willing to tell me or let me see when you’re eating.
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