Force

Everything that might have seemed clear about the idea of veganism is, in reality, not clear at all. It isn’t just about diet, health, leading a cruelty-free life or avoiding unethical products, it’s also about persuading people to change for their own good but against their own will. It’s likely that most people will dislike the pressure we might put on them, which will muddy the idea we are promoting, whilst for our part we’re likely to be convinced of the need to push them past their own inertia.
Maybe we should merely suggest and wait. Like any truly successful salesperson, we should avoid trying to sell too directly, only help people to make decisions for themselves. If vegans choose to talk the subject up by inducing guilt and fear, they may fail instilling new attitudes. If the sales pitch is aggressive or has a heavy moral overtone, we can be sure our ‘customer’ will feel as if he/she is being ambushed.
We’ll be seen by the way we come across, either as someone to be interested in or to be avoided. When people clash with us it’s usually because of the uncomfortable feelings that our arguments evoke, as if we are using them to float our disapprovals and value-judgements. As soon as anyone feels their values are being judged, there’s trouble. So we need to unravel a lot of our own attitude before we can start to alter other people’s, before we can talk productively about this subject. We mustn’t forget that we’re dealing with something most people are attached to, namely the use and the eating of animals.