Going public

When activists start accusing the exploiters and hurling abuse in public it works wonders … in the short term. It unifies our fellow protesters, it makes us feel good, and sometimes it’s brave – ‘aggro activists’ think if they look scary enough it might strike fear into people’s hearts. But unless we are willing to continually escalate this sort of protest it loses its power and is eventually ignored or it breeds distrust or it just fizzles out. Big talk and threats can only promise what can’t be delivered. The aim of any animal rights protest should be to win over by setting some sort of responsible example that people can identify with. If any one is moving towards veganism, even if only in their private thoughts, they are beginning to identify with the people they see who they like the look of. People who seem to be gravitating towards a non-violent way of thinking, who are pulling away from ‘hard nose’ attitudes.
If we are already established as vegans we may want to ‘go public’. We may want to make a huge fuss about the misrepresentation of veganism, perhaps to stop being easily ignored. The general public will ignore us completely given half a chance, not because of who we are but because of what we are saying. Any excuse will do when it comes to avoiding the dreaded subject of animal rights, and that includes the advocate.
This is mainly why it’s difficult for us, because we can’t catch people’s attention. We no longer bump into people on street corners and converse with them on serious matters. There aren’t any passers-by to talk to. There’s nowhere we can ‘address the public’. Today most people lead such private lives – we go from home to car to work to car to home, one closed garage to another closed garage perhaps. So we live in a cocoon. Life is so proscribed and random is a dirty word. No one meets the stranger, and so no new ideas circulate unless within the selected group or unless through the sanitised media. In the main, people no longer go searching for new or radical ideas because no one wants the aggravation.
So how, in the first place, do vegans make a connection and then prove we genuinely want to inform and, when there are differences of opinion, bridge the gulf in a non-threatening (non-judgemental) way? How do we convince people we only want to help improve their lives? Perhaps we do it most effectively via our manner. There’s that feeling you can have with others …