An omnivore crisis

A crisis can be a death in the family or a failed exam, anything remembered as ‘crisis-time’. On a subtler level we meet crisis when we’re hit by new information or new understanding. Maybe there’s no blood and no noticeable damage, but something disturbing takes place. We have to respond to it.
Take a simple idea. It suggests something. It makes us feel uncomfortable (or inspired-elated). As an example, it’s like coming face to face with veganism. It has an impact. It creates tension. It may even feel significant. Out of respect for this as a serious idea, it always calls for a reaction.
An omnivore: we meet an idea and that idea might stun us or it might dissipate like water off a duck’s back. If an idea like veganism is mooted it’s likely we shove it in the too-hard basket. We try to forget about it. But if it does sink in and we do react, we sometimes create an initial crisis for ourself. There’s a fight within, as we first take in and then repel the idea. There’s maybe a fight without, about to happen: imagine meeting up with a friend, ending up in ‘dreaded vegan confrontation’. This, to all intents and purposes, can be a social nightmare.
Imagine meeting by chance someone we haven’t seen for many years. We can’t begin to guess how they’d changed since knowing them last (and us for them too). We meet them with a certain curiosity, but if this person’s a vegan, and it comes to light quite quickly, then curiosity goes pear-shaped. Alarm. It can move to dislike or even attack. However shocking ‘vegan’ might sound, it’s impossible to hide that sensation of shock on meeting it. It’s usually so obvious that we can’t hide it (especially from a sensitive vegan, who’s used to this). If we make a hash of things here, saying something the vegan can squash all too easily, we might tip. We might have to defend ourself quite dramatically. We might have to tip over into who-gives-a-damn and say what we really feel.
The vegan (naively or with a secret violent intent) ‘creates’ a situation over tea and biscuits perhaps, and to keep cred all round a ‘reaction’ is called for. But what to make of this vegan ex-friend? The omnivore (meeting a vegan) might, for self-defence reasons, see a stereotypical-vegan in front of them and remember that these types of people have several nasty characteristics.
The omnivore: we might realise this was never going to be a casual encounter … more like a shame-fest. The prediction game moves on rapidly, within microseconds. Here’s a possible attack. Here’s me, victim, taking an ear-blasting about someone else’s ‘issues’. Here’s me, an almost-stranger, subjected to offensive ideas, floating on the safety of old acquaintance, which are being evangelised. Here’s me afraid of a ‘put-down’ … because ‘they’ all hate omnivores.
In a word we have a totally destructive situation all round. From friend to friend there’s a deterioration into not-a-friend but a person you used to know who now gets under people’s skin.
We are standing in front of someone who has a message (maybe with a bible under their arm or they’re wearing a tree-hug t-shirt or they’re vegan) who wants to speak. And we want them NOT to.