Lightness of being

861: 

As vegans, are we or our view admired? No, not necessarily. People see us as masochists and our philosophy as idealistic.

            Do omnivores want to agree with us? No, they certainly don’t, because they can’t see how life could ever be fun again - if you had to give up so many things, food mainly.

            Maybe vegans have a warped perception of the omnivore mind. Maybe we think they’ll listen to us if we push them hard enough. But it hasn’t worked so far. To date, few of them have gone vegan.

Perhaps, for vegetarians (half way reformers) the seductive qualities of dairy products hold them back. And for meat-eaters, celebrating such events as weddings and Christmas, by feasting on rich animal protein, is irresistible. To interfere with that is unthinkable.

            As a percentage of the population (in Australia), vegans are a tiny minority, much tinier than in Europe and North America; but at the other end of the scale, in most countries, vegans are almost non-existent. Perhaps things will stay this way for a while yet, until specific ethical constraints make boycotting animal based foods fashionable.

            I doubt if we’ll start to see signs of permanent change until we talk to our own conscience. Conscience awakens empathy. Until then, there are important ‘don’ts’. The value-judging of the animal-eater (to shame them into change) won’t increase empathy. Being angry, outraged, disgusted, etc., won’t help the animals either.

If our aim is to spring animals from jail we have to find a way to impress the general population; if we’re serious about getting people to become animal-conscious, we have to transmute our outrage into something like a ‘lightness of being’. Patience is impressive and has a calming effect on this animal-liberating revolution, because it will associate change with non-violence of approach.

            Humans have one big attitudinal problem – we have a big brain and a big fist and we use the first to wield the second. But we’re also very conscious of fashion and that might be our saviour. Fashion is the big changer, and in this case a fashion change in attitude might be stronger than the wisdom of diet change.