The mind of the omnivore

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Maybe vegans are still so marginalised because we have no top professionals to argue our case. Has anyone ever heard of a vegan barrister, tirelessly defending the rights of animals, pro-bono? No, as yet these bright minds are engaged elsewhere ... or maybe they don’t exist. And career is valued above almost everything else these days; by defending Animal Rights they could do serious damage to their career prospects.

            Needless to say, the opposition forces are formidable. The ‘Animal Abuse Club’ has got it all over us. They have everything going for them. They have the power and the money, and they find it relatively easy to win the hearts and minds of the public. They’re simply selling or consuming products after all, whereas we’re trying to sell a whole raft of radical ideas; they simply want dollars and comfort whereas we want to shift a whole public attitude towards the using of animals.

As of today the rate at which attitudes are changing (concerning animal-use) is slow. For us, it’s disappointing that so few people want to hear what we have to say. Most people probably think we’re quite mad to expect otherwise.

Oh, the unfairness of it all! We feeling that we have a great case to argue, they so successfully stone-walling us. Is it any wonder we judge them in order to make it clear how much we disagree with them? But although it might seem harmless enough at the time (making us feel better), we often don’t realise how destructive we’re being.

The more we find fault or insult the general omnivore population, the more likely it is that they’ll dig their heels in. It might be less satisfying for us, but our job is to inform, help, serve, encourage and impassion. It’s a worthy aim, but maybe we can be a tad crafty too. We can be just a little subliminal with what we put out.

First up, it’s not necessary to defend our own position since there’s nothing to defend, whereas one notices that they, on the other hand, feel obliged to go onto the defensive. So we must never be insulting or getting uptight or scoring points – they’ll be super-sensitive to that. Even if we feel boiling rage (at what’s happening to the animals), to show it? … duh! It’s quite likely we’re heartbroken that decent people seem so insensitive ... but judge them? How will that help anyone? It’s likely that our ‘boiling over’ is simply a way of finding relief for ourselves. In our attempts to convert we often shoot ourselves in the foot. We risk our own reputation by spoiling people’s opinion of us, simply because we feel obliged to be quarrelsome over these issues.

So, there’s the danger. There’s the trap we walk into, when we present a clear, calm argument and then get upset when people quite unreasonably choose to disagree.

My getting upset leads to them to think they’re winning the argument. They won’t back down, which leads me to become aggressive back; in my way of thinking, if I choose NOT to go down that road, there’s a danger I’ll not sound strong enough about the issues.

How strongly people disagree with us, even though they don’t have good arguments to throw back, indicates how they feel. We might remember our own feelings once upon a time – many of us used to feel the same way they feel.

For me, I have a bit of a memory gap here, where I can’t really remember how one feeling progressed to the next and to the next, until I arrived at a point where I am now. All I know now is that I know quite a lot about a subject that most people don’t know about and don’t want to.

Fundamentally, I (we) have to realise that it’s impossible for omnivores to know what it’s like to be vegan. Therefore they have no idea how ‘being vegan’ feels. They can’t possibly know how empowering it is, to stand up for something as important as Animal Rights when very few others are yet doing so. We, and others like us, can feel okay about our commitment, there’s no problem with that. The trouble starts when we feel the need to proselytize. Somehow, we are looking to convert a whole attitude. But the danger is in the passion we show. We so much want people to see something important that we fail to realise what capacity our subject has to inflame some very unattractive traits in people.

What we are saying shows up the animal-abuser as being shallow and, by inference, all consumers who support them. But also, what we are saying affords us a chance to boast; so, when we speak, we are speaking to a shame-faced individual (who we imply is shallow), and they see in us a show-off, full of pride mixed with righteousness and selflessness. And we expect them to take up our advice? And no ordinary advice at that? It’s no wonder that we often evoke knee-jerk rejection.

Amongst one another vegans can get away with a little self-satisfied posturing, but amongst omnivores that’s not a good look. If we want to pass on ‘good’ advice urged on with a little hurry-up, it needs a deal of subtlety. If we engage in any moral arm twisting it could encourage people to drop us. Even with friends, especially with friends, your average omnivore might think it better to have no friend than a bull-at-a-gate preacher-friend.