Bullying our way to power

However long we’ve been vegan, all of us are fighting our own demons. The strength we need to do that may come from our latest passion, even if it forces us into a marginalised lifestyle. Understandably we like to flex our muscles if we get the chance. Show off our passion. It’s fun to do that and, best of all, it shocks people out of their rut. It even gets people staring at us with incredulity.
It’s great to get passionate about animal liberation, but there’s a fine line between being passionate and being offensive. In order to get people to trust us (enough to listen to us) we surely need compassion flowing through every bone of our body, both for them and for the animals.
Our first loyalty though it to the victims. We need to radiate compassion so hard that others can’t fail to recognise ‘it’ in us. We need to show that it has made us into nice people. It costs a little self sacrifice putting this huge emphasis on liberating animals.
Showing it by what we eat and what we don’t eat, being vegan may not be enough to persuade. We need to show the omnivores just how easy it is to be vegan but also how easily we can argue our case. We don’t have to work hard to get people to agree with the basic premise - that animal cruelty is wrong. We are, after all, herbivores. We’re vegan for no other reason but to show how seriously we are taking our own argument. But also we’re showing it involuntarily - we’ve probably got more energy and sparkle than non-vegans have. But perhaps the most impressive feature of this lifestyle is that it has the classic double bonus: we benefit ourselves by being vegan and it’s not just for our own benefit that we’re vegan.
Being vegan because of others (specifically for ‘food’ animals), we live by our arguments and sometimes for them. No more needs to be said about these benefits to us, because they are reward enough. But the negative impact from omnivores does put lead in our balloon. If people can’t see the passion in us (our sense of purpose) they’ll misinterpret us entirely. They won’t trust us and, furthermore and worse, they won’t like us … and that’s just a stone’s throw from disliking what we say. Which fits in very nicely to the status quo.
Vegans must set the example here and it’s a difficult example to set, especially if we are already seething inside. We need to be professional, civil and interactive. That doesn’t mean getting ‘pally with the enemy’ it merely means making the communication-machine work for all concerned ... so that we can leave it in good condition for those who’ll be operating it in decades to come.
The fight, the argument, the grabbing of people’s attention, they each smell like aggro and therefore very open to misinterpretation of our intentions. So, if only for that reason, it might be better to find an alternative ‘approach’. All of us vegans, we do love a barney with people (who are misguided) but we have to resist getting our rocks off just to gratify this urge to hit out. We have to concentrate on laying the foundation stone for dialogue. A bit boring, but a bit essential.
The Big Realisation (about using animals) has got to happen. At some point it will happen, yet no one knows when. So, we vegans would be doing everyone a favour by NOT dishing out value judgements to win our arguments. Their perception of us being smart alecky only adds to the way they already see us as moral bullies, and no one likes a bully.
If we can dispel that then it could all alter, and discussion could become healthy, open and intelligent. Have you ever heard of this sort of discussion taking place, on this subject? I haven’t.