Why people resist

The theory and practice of veganism are at odds here. Ideally and logically our arguments are very clear and attractive … to us. But the perception of them by others can be quite different. A communication wall exists between how we see it and the way others do. The logic goes something like this: we have, within vegan principles, the most inspiring statement of non-violence anyone can make, just by the sort of food we choose to eat and therefore the philosophical statement we choose to make. At every meal we prove that we’re no longer in league with the animal industries, and that qualifies us to say something groundbreaking about food and about ethics. But that’s not the same thing as having something universally interesting to impart or being invited to speak about it - what we have on offer may not be the currency that other people are familiar with. So, it isn’t just a case of announcing the arrival of a unique eating regime and automatically inspiring the meat eaters to roll over. Ideal conditions we don’t have. People are not queuing up to hear what we have to say.
So, we have to keep returning to the drawing board to ask ourselves what it is we are really dealing with? It’s not just stubbornness. It’s not only that people don’t want to be told what to do by us. It’s probably much more to do with the difficulty people are having in admitting to themselves that they are eating particular foods three times a day which ethically they should not be eating. And none of us should have been eating them, ever. But in the West we eat the wrong food and have done so at the rate of about a thousand meals per year, for every year we’ve lived. In other words no one wants to admit they’ve been wrong for so long. To restore the balance, to make things right, we’re not just suggesting that people change an occasional token item on their shopping list, but forgo favourite foods (as well as other commodities) for the sake of a higher principle, and move on into another world of plant based foods and non-animal clothing. And never look back.
Put that way it seems like a massive undertaking. For people to agree with this might seem unlikely, however the argument logically holds up. The principles vegans suggest are the best ones to live by can serve us well. Immediately they overturn an addiction to dangerous foods, and as with any addictive substance getting ‘clean’ is always going to be attractive and daunting at the same time. It’s as exciting as breathing fresh air after almost suffocating. And yet we tend to stick what is familiar. Our resistance is solid. It’s reinforced everyday in the media, in food shops, in advertising, in the nutritional advice we’re given and just by the common usage of these foods. It’s doubly reinforced by the fact that no one speaks against animal foods or farm animal treatment even though they purport to be our spiritual or educational advisers, and that’s because they are users themselves.