Veganism

Meaning no harm to animals is the essence of veganism’s central principle. It determines so many of our daily activities and thoughts, so going vegan, at first, seems like a huge step. But most vegans I've met wouldn’t consider dropping back to being non-vegan again, not because they’re extremely disciplined but because the benefits are too good to let go of. It isn’t just about food, it's the whole lifestyle and thought process. What Jeff Masson calls “a somersaulting-forward process”, opening up to an entirely new experience. But that’s just on the personal side. The experience we have in our own lives also has world-wide implications for the things most of us want – peace, global health, harmony, etc. Veganism doesn’t necessarily make things easier for us socially - we may not connect with others too well or feel any less frustrated about living in a carnivorous community, but the significance of being a vegan is like living amongst the angels. We can’t help but be flying alongside some very great ideals and ethical principles. Going vegan is immediately inspiring. But … there’s always a ‘but’.
We always come back into the reality of being vegan in a non-vegan world. We have to learn how to deal with the hardness of people, their intolerance of so many wonderful ideas. Vegans may try to change their minds. Perhaps feel a bit of a mission to try. And when they react badly, we dislike that. It’s easy to then dislike them. In our minds we condemn them and can’t NOT show it. They hate that. They call our whole ‘new attitude’ aggressive. We counter attack by making value judgements. We attack them for their hypocrisy… and so it goes on. We, the tiny minority, make attacks on the vast majority and not surprisingly it really puts people’s backs up, especially because it refers the holy of holies – food. All too soon we find ourselves in the middle of a war zone, but as ever, on the back foot.
So vegans have to be careful, like a card player, not to use all our trump cards too soon. If provoked we don’t need go on the attack and waste any advantage we have. Our job is never to try to change people’s minds anyway, that’s something they must do for themselves. Our aim is to get useful information across without being offensive and without being offended by any poor response. All it is (we are doing) is preventing life-threatening dangers. It’s like telling a story, the details of which are both fascinating and memorable, and whether it warns of danger or promises peace it’s the sort of material you consider when alone. But we won’t get this far, of even starting to tell the story if we come on too strong, too soon. We have to bear in mind the subtlety of resistance, the need not to be confrontational, not to induce guilt. And never to get personal. Whenever we talk about these matters, our adversaries are on the look out for our withdrawal of affection towards them, a sure sign we have a nasty side. Just the slightest whiff of judgement stops people wanting to listen and to change their view of things.