Hearing no evil

When vegans say “change to plant-based food” it’s about the most troubling advice anyone could be given because, on the one hand it sounds right but, on the other it goes against the grain. Veganism touches the most sensitive nerve in our body, personal survival. We’d rather live the life we know than risk a journey into the unknown.
However much vegans promise good times ahead, however fit and energetic and calm-minded they seem, basic survival instinct nearly always kicks in. It rules our head, overrides logic, compassion, the lot. At this crucial point between stage three and stage four (thinking about it and thinking about doing it), it’s only will power keeping our minds clear enough to weigh our options - ideally, theoretically, the vegan regime seems right but in practice it means leaving part of our present life behind. Going vegan is like our second weaning.
People do hear what we say but they don’t process it, for fear of how it might affect them. When they purposely forget what they hear, it’s like tuning out the radio or closing the book. We avoid unpleasant information, and it’s easy to avoid because most others do.
Any time vegans are successful in getting others to listen, we assume more willingness on their part than they may feel. We think we are communicating something valuable to them, they, on the other hand, simply hear a vegan speech. And they know they don’t have to listen to it, so they glaze over. It’s like when the ads come on TV and we switch our attention to something else.
Because the information is about animal suffering the whole experience of listening can be unpleasant. That’s why it’s our job to use imagination, to gauge how much unpleasant stuff we can let out and balance it by the uplifting aspects of vegan principle.