Nudging un-realism

425:
What sort of people are vegans speaking to when they do get the chance to speak? We always hope people will be compliant or, better still, eager to learn all the stuff we want them to know … but it’s likely they’ll be bogged down with other priorities and reluctant to listen.
We have to consider that many people DON’T feel badly about behaving badly. For instance, if they do know about the suffering of animals it might not matter to them, and therefore eating these animals won’t concern them.
What would get people to pull back a bit on their animal eating? I’d suggest that such a radical move only ever happens if people want it badly enough for themselves. What? For their health? For their conscience? Their reputation? At first, does it matter what sort of ‘wanting’ it is?
As vegans we need to appeal to this deep sense of wanting, if it exists. If people aren’t ready to change, we can appeal to their sense of right-behaviour, to their health or to their compassion and get nowhere. We have to be realistic. If they aren’t ready they’ll resort to saying, “If it’s legal and if most other people do it there’s no argument in the world that will persuade me to change”. If they’re not ready they won’t even let their minds rest on the subject of Animal Rights let alone change their diet. They’d say to us: “This is my favourite food we’re talking about here. No way am I going to give up the pleasure of a Sunday roast” (and the social tradition attached to it). “Giving up meat and ALL the rest of it is out of the question”. But who knows, maybe some concession will be made, and that’s a start.
It’s such a powerful substance, food. It’s the one consistent and familiar strand linking all the days of our lives, right up to the present day (we say “I am what I eat”). To expect we can alter any part of that might seem unrealistic. To attempt to alter it though, even though we fail, might add a jot of forward-moving.