Busting Fear

With ‘fast-thinking’ comes, perhaps, the greatest asset of the vegan diet - fear-busting. For the first time in our lives, as vegans, we perhaps stop being afraid, in a certain way. Lots of bogeys are dissolved once this attitude takes over - fears about health, about conscience, about failure ... they’re largely dissolved by the rationale behind veganism. Although the work involved in establishing rights for animals is a huge drain on energy, the forces against us seem to be on shaky ground. And we, as activists, would do well to regard the ‘enemy’ as foolish rather than dangerous.
The thinking behind veganism is probably faultless - if there were flaws they would have come out by now and vegans would have been ridiculed in public. If in fact veganism is an entirely robust idea then the advantage to us is obvious - by suggesting that compassion links directly to fearlessness vegans are goping to be able to tough it out when the issue of using animals comes to be a battleground. We’re in a strong enough moral position to open up this one great taboo area. In fact we’ll probably soon be able to talk about this subject with such panache that the opinions of the omnivores will seem absurd.
However, that is not to say the flak won’t be hard to handle. It is now - we all might know what it feels like, when having a chat with a friend, and then, ‘BANG’, out of the blue, the atmosphere turns. (“that’s never happened before”). We feel helpless. What we experience might be bad enough with a strangers but with colleagues, friends, family, wow! If you go vegan: expect that (bottom line here, all truth out in the open) - we discover how raw a nerve we touch when we say, “I’m vegan”.
I’ve noticed (probably because I’m known as a bit ‘rabid’) that even good friends don’t often dare to go too near ‘that subject’ with me. They probably think, if they gave me the slightest excuse, I’d steer the conversation a certain way. Perhaps getting onto other unrelated ‘compassions’ and then gradually draw the talk around to what I WANT TO TALK ABOUT.
If we, as vegans, think we’re pretty crafty when we’re doing this, erm, they ... erm ... spotted it years ago. They know us. That bit of us anyway. They have a seventh sense - when any ‘compassion’-type person enters their field, they know.
For us, on the other hand, whenever we’re discussing serious matters, it’s almost impossible not to touch on this ‘compassion’ angle ... and we all know where that leads us to!
We are such walking, talking transmitters of vibrations of ourselves. We pick up a recognition from another person - that they’ve twigged what we’re manoevering the conversation towards. Towards that taboo subject. Vegans can’t easily hardly conceal this ... and here I am, suggesting that instead of displaying it proudly we make every effort to conceal or underplay.
Now, I admit this looks very similar to shame, as if we were hiding something we’re ashamed of. But of course that’s not the case here - being a vegan is hardly that. Our first instinct is to tell people, “I’m vegan” ... straight away if possible ... just in case they offer us something to eat ...
But boasting about being vegan is not a good look. That’s why we have to sometimes furiously conceal things to prevent THAT happening. This is where conversation either explores ‘compassion’ or it goes the other way, and avoids it altogether, where the conversation is stopped short, directly, by some clumsy manoeuvre. And that happens because alarm bells are ringing for the omnivore. They are sensing there’s something in the air, then something explodes and everything changes. The worst of it when there’s hostility or aggression. It’s not a nice arrival. And it’s just so not necessary, either between ourselves and strangers, or with friends or family.