Example-setting

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Vegans are example-setters, standing up against a Goliath opposition. The opposition isn’t only over food but the myriad issues facing the world, each of which usually take precedence over compassion-for-animals. The issues, in a line of given importance, include global warming/climate change, third world starvation/malnutrition, deforestation/pollution of aquifers, the nuclear threat/nuclear power, abuse of women and children, unemployment ... the list goes on. Each issue gathers passionate support and occupies the minds of the worrying, thinking person. Animal issues don’t impact on people in quite the same way, since there isn’t the same level of obvious, immediate threat to our own lives or the safety of the planet ... although of course vegans would argue otherwise.
The significance of the Big Issues is flagged in the media and is generally acceptable in the way they write it up. So, when it comes to Animal Rights, there are so many other issues to worry about that it isn’t difficult to push it into the background or drop it into the too hard basket.
For those of us who see it as THE main issue we have to come to terms with the reality of the common perception. It isn’t seen that way by most people owing to the fact that they don’t WANT to see it so, and vested interests, namely the Animal Industries, definitely don’t want to see it so.
It’s therefore down to the animal advocates to establish the importance of animal issues and to illustrate how these issues impact on most other problems facing the human race today. Our climate would benefit, our health and food problems would be dramatically alleviated, non-violence would be taken more seriously, etc, if .... but, let’s face it, reasoned argument isn’t quite the point here.
People in general are overwhelmed by that long list of problems. We humans built the problems and now we’re chipping away them. Any single improvement of one of them doesn’t seem to impact on all the others. It seems we can only mouth our concern. It seems we can make a gesture or two but then just get on with our lives. And if we get too worried about being ineffective, hypocritical or misguided we’ll have to deal with that, maybe by cutting another slice of cheesecake and trying to calm down. Mentally we mustn’t be brought down by the weight of all these global unsolve-ables, otherwise we’ll be in danger of losing control of our daily lives. Maybe we’re already in danger of falling into something we dare not think about.
Where will all this worry lead, for those already concerned about their own mental stability? If they were to listen to vegans they’d feel all at sea, changing food one day, going organic next, then raw the next, health issues, animal issues, environmental impacts ... where does it all stop? Can any of us afford to spread our concerns that much?
I suppose it comes down to the way we look at things. When I get a flier through the mail about the latest tragic event, asking me for a contribution, it feels like I’d be plugging a hole in a leaky bucket. I also say “Where does it all stop?”
But why not start? Slipping a fiver in an envelope won’t solve the world’s problems but it’s a start, and every gesture helps. Starting to think about the animals we’re eating, that’s a start. What we do will be largely anonymous, unremarked and even personally inconvenient. But in doing something we are example-setting. Can I do it? Can I resist the pressure, which is always on us to conform, to take the easier way, to go the cheaper way. Can I re-direct my own consumer habits? These are central questions.
Our involvement in waste is as regular as our involvement in cruelty. Being profligate with paper, being party to the ruin of the land or the caging of hens - abuse and cruelty and taking advantage stem from the same attitude ... not reckless, wanton, selfish violence but simply a belief that we do things that we don’t believe we can STOP doing. We don’t think we are good example-setters.
The trick is surely not to be overwhelmed by all the issues but to do something about that which we feel most strongly and about what we feel comfortable doing. In the ‘doing’ comes a certain sense of achievement, and by broadening our concerns, by going deeper, we understand the issues better. I know that I get something valuable out of what I’ve better understood … especially about myself.