Nudging Un-realism

1987:

What sort of people are vegans speaking to when they do get the chance to speak? We always hope people will be compliant or, better still, eager to learn all the stuff we want them to know. But it’s likely they’ll be bogged down with other priorities, and reluctant to listen to us.

         

We have to consider that many people DON’T feel badly about behaving badly. For instance, if they do know about the suffering of animals it might not matter to them, and therefore eating these animals won’t concern them.

         

What would get people to pull back on their animal eating? I’d suggest that such a radical move only ever happens if people want it badly enough for themselves. For their health? For their conscience? Their reputation? At first, it doesn’t matter what sort of ‘wanting’ it is.

As vegans we need to appeal to this wanting, if it exists. If people aren’t ready to change, we won’t stand much chance of appealing to their sense of right-behaviour, to their health or to their compassion. They’ll resort to saying, “If it’s legal and if most other people do it, there’s no argument in the world that will persuade me to change”. If they’re not ready they won’t even let their minds rest on the subject of Animal Rights, let alone change their diet. They’d say to us: “This is my favourite food we’re talking about here. No way am I going to give up the pleasure of a Sunday roast” (and all the social traditions surrounding that ritual). “Giving up meat and ALL the rest of it is out of the question”.

It’s such a powerful substance, food. It’s the one consistent and familiar strand linking all the days of our lives, right up to the present day. To expect that we can alter any part of that might seem unrealistic. But we can make the attempt. Even though we fail, we might plant the first seed of thinking-differently. We may add a jot of forward-moving.