harmlessness

Our aim should be to have confidence, in order to give confidence to the things we say. And for that we need non-violence to assist us. It shouldn’t only be the basis of our eating and shopping but also our thinking and talking. Yes, we need to be assertive and not indecisive but we need to learn about non-violent approach. Yes, we need to be effective in what we do and say but not be closed off to suggestion from ‘outside’ - activists in the Animal Rights movement don’t have a good track record on effective communication. We all still have a lot to learn about non-violent approach. Is this because we say we hate violence but still allow it into our lives? Those of us who are the noisiest about our dislike of violence often don’t notice the ways we practise it. To makes matters worse if we doubt non-violence itself, we’ll move forward far too slowly. We may observe veganism in our eating habits but be not so very different to our omnivorous friends in other respects. In our society non-violence isn’t taken seriously. It’s a bit whimpish. It seems ineffective even though we know violence is ugly and history tells us it always fails. And so we still doubt the power of non-violence.
We need to be sure that non-violence will bring us success, so if we go for it (and we certainly give it a tick of approval when we become vegan) we need to feel it in our hearts not just our heads. It has to feel right. It has to feel human and neither regressive, nor weak, nor leading to subordination. This is where we need to upgrade our non-speciesism to embrace the true values animals represent to us. They do things differently to us, and we have a lot to learn from their approach.
Animals sense things! They smell things a thousand times better than we do and see things clearer too. They often have an uncanny knowledge about us (and show it if they happen to be in a relationship with us, like our cats and dogs at home). They show us things in the way they approach us. They aren’t pre-set. They haven’t worked everything out before they do it. Importantly, unlike us, they are not judgmental.
When they know us, they have things to tell us. Things that we can’t rely on humans to tell us, namely the truth about ourselves. An accurate appraisal of how we are doing in our progress towards non-violence comes from animals. They are masters when it comes to discerning a peaceful person. They are drawn towards them. They are attracted to an affectionate nature because it denotes trustworthiness. To cats and dogs and many other animals we get close to, this is value number one. Having suffered so badly from human violence throughout the ages, animals, wild or domestic, have become arbiters of good taste in the matter of harmlessness.