NON-VEGANS ARE NOT FOR SHOCKING

2084: 

Because animal exploitation concerns us so deeply, vegans will talk to anyone about this subject. We’re the ones who usually get conversations going, not the omnivores. So, by stepping into the fray, if we up the ante then we must take responsibility for what happens.

We can say whatever we like, unless we’re uncertain about our own tendency to ‘turn nasty under provocation’. If we feel a ‘violence’ coming on, or any one of its familiar cousin-feelings, then it’s time to leave or change the subject.

Our passion can easily look like bragging, and what we say can seem deliberately confronting. Being with a vegan, under any circumstances, should ideally be a stimulating even happy experience, not something to dread. Mind you, vegans must step up to the plate here.

Being confronted by a zealot, who only wants to tell people what they may or may not eat, is a disturbing experience. But there are practical reasons too why we vegans shouldn’t confront omnivores - it may take time for them to realise what we’re suggesting. And this can go two ways. It boxes them into an impossible position, because they can’t counter cruelty arguments. It’s as if they think we are trying to lead them down a path where they will be caught between a rock and a hard place.

It can go another way. As if we haven’t the confidence or strength of will that will get us over such strongly ingrained, resistant attitudes. These attitudes constitute the biggest part of our lives. So by considering becoming a vegan, computing how ‘going vegan’ could impact on one’s social life. There are several daunting changes to be made, not only with diet.

But coming back to zealotry. Confronting people with passion. Communicating any subject, it has to start somewhere.

Imagine the scene. We meet. We probably exchange a little intimacy just to confirm we’re still friends. Then, if it feels safe, we might slide into more ‘serious talk’. We each try to keep it ‘together’. For the benefit of our friendship.

Okay. That’s the subject. Animal Rights, etc. But underneath the passing over of important information is the feeling of warmth that goes with it. Nothing between us, our differences, our differences of opinion, our differences of values even, this is not our business exactly, only like ‘in-passing’.

Mainly, it’s got to be a connection, even in a state of ‘differences’. Isn’t that intention not to quarrel how things should always be, no matter what we’re talking about? And isn’t that surely why different humans, from different cultures, would rather converse than argue aggressively? Isn’t that why, today, we so often ‘workshopping’ issues, and talking through or despite our differences.

Anyone, even the most ardent carnivore, is speakable-with. No one has to be ‘impossible’ to talk to.

N