Thoroughly non-violent

For any one of us, being non-violent is when no one is afraid of us. Which means that no one’s afraid of what we say. Speech can be just as violent as a punch in the face. How do we say “I’m vegan”, without sounding superior? (I think humans employed violence originally to establish superiority). How do we speak about non-violent food choices without sounding religious?
If we are thorough about being non-violent, we’ll bring that into our food choices and buy cruelty-free. And that makes us pretty much non-violent people because we choose our food based on never going in for the kill. So we should be able to bring that principle into our conversations, and therefore never emotionally go in for the kill either.
Our arguments are strong enough not to warrant unnecessary displays of emotion (unless spontaneous) Rehearsed outrage is an ugly thing, and enough to steer most people clear of ‘animal righters’. (There’s been so much preaching in the past!). I’d argue that this whole image we have (we good+intelligent:you bad +stoopid) is why there’s an unnecessary gulf between the converted and those that aren’t. For that reason alone I reckon there’s an urgent need to take on non-violence all round. In just about every interaction we make. Or else suffer the consequences of failing more often, more disasterously and getting more and more out of date as the years go by. Vegans really should be primarily associated with being non-violent people rather than vegetable eaters. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be very proud of the will power exerted over our lives - for non-vegans certain foods, using animal, are just too tempting. Say na’ more!
The next paragraph should be ‘R’ rated to enthusiastic animal eaters. It spells out the dividing line between addiction and control. The cruelty of imprisoning and executing helpless animals is something so awful that any truly non-violent person would never want any truck with it. Vegans are vegans not only, or primarily, for reasons of spiritual safety or health but simply to avoid hardening their hearts and blinding their eyes. I suppose it’s true that vegans prefer to stay awake to many dark things going on around them, whereas others don’t. We probably, most of us, reckon that non-vegans are paying a very high price for their animal foods, in more ways than one.
Everyone knows that plant foods are nutritious. In fact they’re highly nutritious. We may also know nutritional needs can be met by plants. And we know from epidemiological studies (of the lives of millions of vegetarians and vegans around the world) that we’re safe as vegans (and satisfied). That undermines any previous doubts we might have had, and takes away justifications we’ve previously used, about our very survival being dependant on abattoirs and animal farms.
Veganism suggests life can be lived without harming any sentient creature. That’s a huge weight off the mind and allows the possibility of leading a totally non-violent life. But because vegans might already be aware of this (and have no trouble applying this principle to their diets and wardrobes) they probably all feel good about it. But where does it stop? A vegan might choose to go no further than personal food and clothing, for fear of broadening the issues too far . . . and it all becoming too overwhelming - “such a huge undertaking - too many changes to be made”. And so be it.
But there must be a great sigh of relief by the planet (and the animals themselves) when any human goes vegan and active, who choose to go into the advocacy business. I suppose it would be appropriate to suggest here that all this changing, to becoming vegan, to becoming animal liberationist, isn’t a race to see who gets there first. This is a true all for one and one for all situation. There are so many issues to consider and each one relates to the rest. Non-violence and altruism, interpersonal relationships, global warming, animal factories, malnutrition … at first glance they seem to be unrelated and yet somewhere down the track they are each destined to meet. If we want to see where that meeting point is, we might have to hang around longer than our body wants us to, so it may NOT be for our eyes, but surely … when it happens. When it happens there’ll be a strong whiff of non-violence around. And it will be nothing less than a revolution in attitude, of which animal rights is but a part. Until we imagine this or become more sophisticated in our ideas, we won’t ever understand what all the fuss is about, and why we’re not making fast enough progress.
As a starting-out point (along with diet of course), non-violence gives a steady direction to what we do, and ideas-wise it seems to be a catch-all. It draws the best out of ideas, so when animal activists become involved in non-violent action, they see the connection between animals and humans, the environment and third world poverty. And they realise that the connection between each issue area is fostering peaceful relationship. Our relationships, like our foods, must become cruelty-free. Once we get there, then we won’t have to try so hard and we can allow things to flow more naturally.