Cause and Casualties

1904:

Let’s face it, a tiny, tiny minority of people are vegans. 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, but we never talk about the loneliness of individuals who are holding a radical viewpoint, and being alienated because of it. There’s a danger that we, as individuals, put aside our social isolation and get side-tracked by ambition for status within the group. In my own experience, I’ve found that groups narrow down to committees which then lose sight of the group’s original aims by getting bogged down in group politics. Or it becomes all about exposing some of the most terrible animal abuses, while the individual activist gets forgotten about. Then the emotional support network becomes weaker while there’s a frantic search for finance for on-going projects.

However it goes, it could have its own rewards, if there were successes being notched up, but often there is no sort of success, and the individual feels their loneliness more acutely.