Talking to people about veganism

Why are we so keen to talk about all this? Talk about new ideas, altered attitudes and changing habit patterns? Perhaps it’s not as facile as wanting something new to chatter about but more a genuine wish to implant a sense of optimism in others. "Optimistic veganism" is a light on the future. We’ve discovered a jewel and simply want to share our good fortune with others.
If we can see the potential in this idea, it’s likely we’ll be busting to talk about it. We figure ‘once seen never forgotten’. But instead of this jewel being widely admired, something unexpected happens. We hit a hurdle. A barrier drops and we don’t understand why. No one actually wants to know about it.
Maybe this is our first taste of rejection over a point of principle, the first time we’ve been cold-shouldered. This rejection feels real because of the energy it sucks out of us. It hurts and it’s intended to hurt or at least bring us up with a jolt. Almost everything will be thrown at us, not only in words but in unspoken feelings of disapproval, in order to bring us back into the fold of how things have always been done (‘anything to bring you home’). At bottom, it’s a suspicion the majority have about minorities - that not only are they deluded but are less clear in what they are saying than they realise. There’s a suspicion that animal rightists who speak about kindness to animals, are often not really kind people at all - people who can only show love towards "creatures" but not to their fellow humans. Whether this is true or not, the rejection or misunderstanding vegans often feel make them feel a bit desperate. They try all the harder to come across as sincere people. People who have thought hard about something important and setting aside self interest have come to some difficult conclusions. And ultimately that is not such a bad thing, to have to go through being misjudged by others, toughening us up for the struggles that lie ahead of us.
Vegans may have to deal with this the best way they can, and wait for others to catch up. This matter of being utterly sincere, living by principle, not having ulterior motives, all that is something we want to establish. It is, after all, central to our credibility. And eventually our effectiveness.