Vegan

"Vegan" conjures up the idea of difficulty, so it’s dishonest to say becoming vegan is easy. Our listeners aren’t fools – they can see veganism isn’t complicated to understand but is probably quite hard to carry out. It is based on a set of principles (so simple a small child could understand it) but that it means a lot of giving-up of things. Familiar and favourite food for example. Mainly food but not only food. There are clothing items, shoes made of leather, entertainments using animals, cosmetics tested on animals, and there are also the social factors involved in becoming a vegan. We have to be able to handle being regarded as social misfits. But to put it all in proportion, we have to remember that it’s a mighty principle we are promoting. We can put up with the pain of being misunderstood, especially when we think of the advantages of a clear conscience, a healthy body and a somewhat clearer mind and faster brain. Admittedly it’s a discipline and therefore we have to work at it, but we are undoubtedly contributing not only to the ‘greater-good’ but to a better carbon footprint. And the plant-based diet we adopt, if taken up by large numbers of people, would lead to the eradication of world hunger, since the plant food currently being grown to feed animals could be fed to humans. But the greatest advantage of veganism is in the significance of its disassociation with animal cruelty. Whatever hardships vegans might have to put up with, nothing compares with the suffering of the animals. So nothing is as important as boycotting products and sparing the animals. That is what ultimately cements vegan resolve and makes ultimate sense out of what we are saying.
But veganism isn’t a breeze. It’s still difficult for people who want to be vegan, especially if they have a mental block about how to get past addictions to certain of their favourite foods and most especially if there is a nagging belief that a plant-based diet might be unsafe. All the more reason then that we, as vegans, should realise where most people are at and why what we are saying may be frightening. And if we say it aggressively it can be both shocking and insulting too. For example, the slogan “Meat is Murder” is really saying “You are a murderer” and for that reason alone vegans need to ease up on the invective. Accusing people of this is just about as attacking as anything one can say. Is it valid to attack like this? How careful should we be with our words? And why be careful? Is it valid to point out the nasty side of human nature, even though we know people will turn away from us when we do?
If it is valid, then what exactly is this aspect of human nature we are trying to draw people’s attention to? For all of us, vegan and non-vegan, it might be what is known as 'our shadow'; the part of us we want to hide. Not the gentle, generous side but the hard, mean-hearted side.
Vegans say things that shock and the reaction is predictable. As soon as veganism is mentioned (as the penny drops that ‘animal rights’ is the subject and not health or diet) a defence shield goes up. If we are going to talk about animals rights, we have to decide beforehand how far to go, by gauging when to pull back and when to press forward. We don’t know where someone’s breaking point is going to be or if they will be either attracted to a challenge or regard what we say as a personal attack.