The vegan bulldozer

When meeting people who don’t want to hear what we have to say, it’s easy to lose it. But if we are affable enough we can bulldoze them - some chutzpah can work as long as we maintain a sense of humour and some familiarity, (this is after all a serious and an intimate subject). We don’t have to be best buddies with everyone, we just need to build mutual respect and emphasise equality of status. If we’re open to their views, it’s more likely they’ll try to listen to what we have to say.
‘Out there’ there’s genuine interest. People want to know what we eat, they want to know what a vegan diet is, even what our views are. They might ask provocative questions, and to get this they’ll put up with a bit of cheek, even to the point where we can send them up for eating ‘dead animals’, but . . . there’s a hairsbreadth of difference between friendly chat and us making value-judgements of them. Maybe vegans feel, out of loyalty to the animals, that we should be deadly serious and confront people where ever we can – as if to show how deeply we feel. But once we get heavy they stop identifying with us and lose interest in what we’re saying. Passing on information laden with judgement (and statistics) is dull and confronting. It’s even worse when we change the ‘temperature’ by withdrawing intimacy. A spat becomes unfriendly, and that’s the end of our communication. If we go to all the effort to establish a connection it shouldn’t be broken lightly.
Even if we can’t be buddies we do have to work from a position of equality. We can’t afford to lose anyone because they think we consider them inferior – that would be such a wasted opportunity. We must be seen to respect all views as valid (even the wrong ones!) until proven otherwise. Serious conversation must remain a friendly discussion in which everyone feels free to disagree or concede a point. It isn’t a competition or an excuse to spark bad feelings, and for our part we must try never to leave another person behind. However far apart our views may be our feelings for each other shouldn’t be compromised. By keeping the human to human connection open we remain simply two individuals chatting. Or it might be a vegan speaking to a room full of strangers, but as long as some level of affection is maintained the interaction remains alive. It’s a sort of professionalism, setting the standard for our relationships as well as maintaining the reputation of the cause we represent.