Grabbing what’s on offer

844:

Has anyone ever asked the animals their permission, for taking things from them? Their secretions and, for heaven’s sake, their very lives?

            No animal has indicated in any way that we may steal from them, and yet we do, and all the while we think it’s essential and (for we humans at least) good for us. That’s partly why vegans get so angry and judgemental about the casual way otherwise intelligent and kindly omnivores conduct themselves in this respect.

            Now, if we really want omnivores to start thinking about this whole matter of their ‘having no permission’, we first need to see them as potential learners rather than blind consumers. They need to see us as teachers rather than condemners.

If we can’t stop our habit of judging them, then the bigger our rage the smaller our voice, and the more likely no one will take any notice of what we’re trying to tell them. One of my main criticisms of the animal rights movement is that we only ever judge and condemn. We say the same things over and over again, hoping something will stick and hoping the penny will drop. We fail to see how this tactic never actually works.

Often we’re not very original in what we say. If it isn’t slogan-talk then it’s the stale repeating of the same old arguments – we never seem to encourage people to think things out for themselves, we don’t welcome opposite points of view or allow others space for consideration. Does this mean that we aren’t really interested in talking through this subject?

If we don’t really want to talk ethics with people, then what DO we want to talk to them about? Usually we don’t get further than health and cruelty issues, from where we can launch our well-known moral judgements on them.

Wouldn’t it be better to simply give out useful information, without feeling a compulsion to show our own feelings on the subject? It would be so much better if they had to wring information from us - they’d value it far more than if we fired it at them with angry guns.