Over-stepping the mark

518:

What mostly keeps vegans and omnivores apart is that one side knows what the other doesn’t. To the omnivore, any information about food-animals and vegan diets is always pushed away, not because anyone believes in cruelty to animals or wants to indulge themselves in any way but because no one likes a bible-basher pushing unwelcome information at them. As free-willed adults, living in Western democracies, we don’t like being told what to do, especially what to eat.

I find myself being a bit of basher - “You have to hear what I’ve got to say, for your own safety”. Omnivores question my authority to say what I say. “You have no right to push me on that point”, they would say if it weren’t likely to lead them into deeper waters.  

I can corner someone whilst staying just inside the boundary of acceptable pushiness, and I’ll be doing some good for the animals too. But what a risk! Gambling the chance of a sensible, low-key discussion of the issues, for the sake of making a ‘hit’. It’s tempting. I’m so used to having my views put down or ignored that ‘pushing a point’ seems justified. And for me, doing it feels good. It feels courageous, and perhaps adds another notch on my stick. It’s satisfying to tell an ‘insensitive omnivore’ what I think of their arguments. I owe it to the animals and maybe I’ll go in boots and all. But perhaps I should wise up. I already have enough problems of communication without provoking or frightening people.

I think what I need to do is turn around my attitude, from confrontation to having sympathy and compassion for the tight spot all omnivores find themselves in. They are probably very reluctant to change their lifestyle and diet but are nevertheless haunted, as I am, by the cruelty of animal farming. Although the issues might seem worth discussing there’s a let-out for them, since they comprise 99% of the population and can shelter behind the normality of what others do.

My view is that I need to get over being ‘insistent’. Even though it’s a significant issue for me (as it is, of course, for the animals themselves). But it isn’t an issue for most others, who believe that animals are here for us to use. Human beliefs are as change-proof as reality itself - things are as we believe them to be. Many believe life without hamburgers is no life at all.

To carry someone across, from their belief to our own, is a big challenge. It’s likely people know what they do, but their need for their favourite foods clashes with a dissatisfaction within themselves; there’s the poisoning effect on one’s health and the poisoning of conscience over what’s done to animals. Changing all that for the sake of a higher level of self-satisfaction seems a high price to pay. 

I know, even if I’m persuasive enough to get them to try a vegan diet that they won’t stay vegan for long if they’re still hankering for something that’s ‘off the list’. I somehow have to turn that around so they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which goes beyond taste bud satisfaction and disinterest in the welfare of animals and leads them to a less haunted future.