Attitude versus attitude

Being vegan means putting up with people’s misconceptions of veganism. To ‘have attitude’ usually means being resentful and uncooperative, and vegans often seem this way to outsiders. In advocating for animals vegans have to become ‘refusniks’ and maybe suffer for that; by showing empathy for food-animals we might have to accept derision from people who not only disagree with us but who think we regard ourselves as superior. However unfair that might seem, we need to hold onto our position to get our message across effectively. And not take umbrage.
Our reason for disassociating so radically from the main group is that we believe that certain social values need radical re-examination. Vegans don’t want to be exclusive, we just want to get this animal slavery problem taken seriously. We need some communication happening without alienating our own personal support base.
A non-vegan friend of mine mentioned to me the other day that global warming was the biggest issue facing us, and I said there’s another equally big issue, if not bigger … but before I could expand on my outrageous theory I was stopped. He ‘knew’ what subject I wanted to bring up and he mentioned something about “we can all get a bit obsessive …”, which was his way of closing down the discussion. The problem was that he thought he knew what I was going to say. And that it would have opened up a whole deep discussion of certain matters, which he neither had time for nor the inclination to get into. So I never got the chance to explain what I had in mind.
It’s not easy to find anyone to listen, especially when people get wind of what we are trying to bring up. But that is the reality we always have to come to terms with. It illustrates not how we’d like it to be but how it actually is, now. To discover how to inspire people we must surely learn first how to deal with disappointment and disillusion, and keep trying different ways without being put off. The eureka moment won’t be handed to us on a plate. In the meantime we need to hold onto the belief that people’s attitudes will change in time. So presently, it’s ‘nothing to go on about’.