736:
Just as children need to grow out of their
temper-tantrum stage so do adults need to grow out of their animal-killing stage; it’s ugly, it’s violent and
it’s unnecessary. And eating food from these animals is probably the most
dangerous thing we do to ourselves, long-term-healthwise.
As
animal activists, our aim is to get that message across, but in order to do
that we have to set the stage. We first need to be seen as people who love
animals and people alike. Once that is established, then we can deliver the
bottom line - the need for attitude-change, in the way animals are regarded.
Despite the traditional dependency on them and the mind-set most people have
about the use of them, that is the change that has to happen. The change must
be voluntary and we need to encourage the change without using force.
Whenever
I’m speaking to anyone about cruelty to animals it’s easy to get steamed up. I
have to remind myself that, because nearly everyone is indirectly involved, I
must NEVER attempt to shame people into change. That will never work and I will
lose my friends into the bargain. I can’t expect anyone to agree with me just
because my arguments look convincing on paper.
I suppose my main aim is to get a person to
think for them-self. I don’t ‘do’ guilt. Nor shame. And I hope I’m never pushy
or aggro. With perhaps a different point of view it’s important to climb-down
from the high moral platform.
Most
people have a great capacity for loving and being loved. Most vegans I know
have this double side to them, in that they love humanity but also have a
passion to rescue animals from their cruel masters (who are, incidentally, fellow
humans).
Our attempts to persuade and argue our case
rests upon the sort of example we set, not only as vegans but as non-judgmental
people. Even though our arguments seem difficult to handle, the words we use to
explain them must be kind. And as much as I want to persuade others I also want
to prove I’m just as interested in self examination, so that I NEVER come
across as better-than, and thereby up myself, and inevitably off-putting.
I’ll
screw up if I can’t carry this off. If I miss my target I won’t break through.
I think the trick is to show how I’m no stranger to inconsistency myself, and
was, earlier in my life, reluctant to make the very changes I am advocating
others make; I made my own howlers and made dishonest mistakes.
And
no, I don’t think vegans are superior. So I’d never say anything like, “I’m
vegan, how about you?”, because apart from being boastful, that would be clumsy
and seperationist and rude.
Whatever we have to say, it doesn’t need to
be said too directly. People can pick up the message without it being spelt out
too heavily; they are likely to be sensitive to overtones in the voice, body
language, etc. To be a good communicator, perhaps we should show that we are
sensitive to the difficulty of change, especially when we’re with
hostile or uninterested listeners. We shouldn’t be moralisers, we should try to
be equalizers, and different from each other only in that each of us is at a
different stage of awareness. I hope all that doesn’t sound too cheesy.
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