Affection and vulnerability

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I suppose most of us like to be liked. If you are promoting a particular argument you’ll want that argument to be liked too. However, if we have a nasty side, once the ‘game is up’, once it’s spotted, there’s both a drop-off in affection for us and confidence in us. We ‘peace-loving vegans’ can get angry and ugly, given the right circumstances, and that’s how we can lose people.

            Meat eaters and other animal users may also have a nasty side. With them it might be a ‘hard-nose’ attitude. But whether it’s my attitude or yours, our unattractive approach helps feed fear, fear-of-change. As a vegan, my main concern is the fear that causes a hardening of the heart, which turns people away from ideas that are associated with soft-heartedness.

            Although most of us have a nasty side, a contemptuousness which we use to shock people with, we must learn to deal with it, to keep it under control. And just by doing that I begin to ‘work’ on myself as well as ‘work on The Animal Campaign’.

The combination of my wanting to contribute to the greater good, while at the same time unafraid of my shortcomings, works well - it lets people NOT take offence, from what we’re saying.