The judgement trap

Just about everyone knows how vegans view the world but how do vegans view themselves? Perhaps we think being vegan is pretty much how everyone should be, morally speaking and healthwise, but the danger is that vegans will seem as though they’re looking down from a height, perhaps boastfully, as if we are better than others. And if we think that way we might feel entitled to judge others who don’t think that way. And if we can’t get people to agree with us voluntarily we may use value judgement as a weapon against their obstinacy. If we resort to this sort of moral force, it can be seen as a subtle form of violence or aggression. It’s as if we are violating the freedom of choice, when that choice is regarded by almost everyone, the law included, as acceptable.
From an outsider’s point of view there’s something about a holier-than-thou person that is distinctly unattractive and needing to be ‘brought down to size’. Anyone who thinks themselves better, whether cleverer, wealthier, better looking or more righteous, is unattractive, simply because they seem so self satisfied.
If vegans refuse to be judgemental it changes everything. We may well have a quality which others can admire, and that counts for a lot, despite it seeming to us as too passive. Vegans often feel that if they aren’t up front that they’re being apologetic about being vegan; we’re more used to the stridency of putting our arguments into circulation, causing a disturbance to attract attention and ‘laying it on the line’. But that’s all been done before and it hasn’t built any useful momentum. Animal rights has a reputation of exposing the truth but not changing people’s minds. We have to ask why. Is it perhaps that the vegan extreme is more than people can take on board? And are we giving people a ready made excuse to avoid the truth we present by letting them think badly of us as judgmental evangelicals?
For us there are two positions to think about here: can we afford to be a benign presence who isn’t a threat or an embarrassment to others? And can we handle that self image? Surely, as vegans who knows our own strengths, we don’t need to prove anything about our self to our self. We are surely stronger if we have a completely non-violent image. As insignificant as we might be to others, we must know that our vegan principle is our own inner strength. It is there to support us when we don’t seem to be making much impact, and it can only weaken when we feel the need to boast about it. In other words being vegan allows us to remain positive and strong … as long as we never think of others as being ‘below’ us.