Smile easy - you’re being watched

276:

Vegans are used to people trying to have a go at them. Usually it’s a very half-hearted attempt to make our ‘over sensitivity towards animals’ look foolish. In company an insulting comment is often enjoyed by everyone - all the more reason why I shouldn’t let myself be provoked. I don’t need to show outrage although I have to be sure my arguments can ride out these minor annoyances. At the very least I should be able to say something which sounds competent ... as any animal advocate should.
Meat eaters, from their safe, majority position, always like to put down the righteous. They want to show how easy it is to make us angry - I do the smile-easy to confound them. As it happens, they usually try to wind me up to get an excuse NOT to have to listen to what they don’t want to hear.
If I start to show anger at them it gives them the green light to shut the door in my face. When I do get some sort of a hearing then I suppose I must be prepared to be fair game for attack ... because I’ve dared to question their most private lifestyle habits. Most carnivores don’t care about animal suffering and don’t want to talk about it, and yet there are always those who do want to take us on. So, as vegans, we need to be ready for ‘dinner table attacking’.
When I find myself the butt of a carnivore’s joke I can put up a good fight but I don’t achieve much if it simply makes them more frightened than they already are. (I reckon it’s fear that urges them to make a joke of it in the first place). The aim of a sharp-edged joke is to attract attention and gather support ... and to overwhelm me ... so, if i take umbrage or withdraw in silence then it seems that I can’t come up with a sharp enough retort ... and that often makes them smell blood and go in for the kill.
These are still early days for Animal Rights. We’re building foundations and encouraging new attitudes towards animals. We’re outlining law reform that will illegalise abattoirs and animal farming. And that would include the keeping of birds in cages (whether they’re budgerigars or hens) and fish in bowls (or fish-farming tanks). What I’m proposing annoys people hugely. And I’ll be told so. My point here is that it’s futile to spend too much time fighting with everyone who disagrees with us.
For my part I don’t want to waste my life fighting every local skirmish. Maybe those who laugh at us do need to be ignored - ‘the lamb’ jibe needs to be let through - if only because jokers and ‘people with vested interests’ are still in the ascendancy. Many of them are just busting to put us down if they get the chance. Discretion might be the better part of ‘going in boots and all’.
My compassion for animals is right, of course it is, because it’s the logical outcome of this anti-slavery movement. Obviously it feels right to me. That I should get upset that so many don’t agree is a waste of my emotional energy. Having a sense of humour about it all is the healthiest and most logical response, even if I have to handle a heckle or two. It’s ridiculous for me to wage war over every puff of smoke. I don’t need to take on every red neck I meet, or parry every joke. I don’t even have to be intimidated by political corporations. In fact I don’t have to be afraid of any of them because none of them have ‘the bottle’ to take me or any of us on in serious debate.
The world’s at a funny stage at the moment. So much openness to so many issues and yet, on some matters there are still too many questions un-asked. For instance, how is it that some of us are passionate advocates for animals and others are indifferent or hostile? I’m always asking myself how come vegans are so relatively enlightened and meatheads so backward?
The fact is that our differences are specific and not general. Vegans are probably not that much brighter or kinder or healthier but we do have more self discipline because we are, in some ways, so much more fearless and we do so much more boycotting. We’re constantly investigating and thinking about ethical issues. We’re more used to questioning and arguing our case and that probably makes us somewhat frightening to our opponents. If I’m right about that then it follows that our adversaries might feel just a little nervous. We don’t need to wind them up. It’s their fears we should be trying to allay.