Why do we do it?

890: 

Get used to it! Vegan + Animal Rights is going to remain unpopular for a while yet. Vegans have to be solo fliers and yet remain free to speak. Surely that’s enough, satisfyingly, for any vegan activist. It has to be. We’re building for the future. It’s a future we may not see, in this lifetime and acceptance of that is integral to self-motivation. We have this one strength of purpose - the liberation of animals. That purpose drives us to work as hard but as enjoyably as we can. We should work in the areas that most interest us, since this is all about long-term motivation, getting into the rhythm of the work, getting used to the fact that we work alone, unsupported. Whatever we do, we are doing it for the animals. There’s nothing better to be doing, as far as I can see.

            As unsupported defenders of the animals’ right to a life, as hard as it might be, we must never forget for whom we are fighting. Those poor, incarcerated beings have a lot more to worry about than we do. Theirs is a much more horrible life of desperation.

            So, we have this struggle, with ourselves, our habits, our friends and colleagues. We struggle with being so unsupported, and then there’s the ‘poor-me’ and our whingeing pessimism to contend with. It’s enough to make us desperate, to compensate for our sense of failure.

But here’s where we need to look at the bigger picture - the ‘could-be’, the ‘will-be’, so that, when ‘speaking-about’ animal issues with other people, we need to appear to be just a little more certain than we actually feel. Primarily, we need to give off a feeling of confidence about change happening, even if it doesn’t seem likely.

And if I want to see things change (which of course I do!), I want it to benefit my life. I want the prospect of change to help me not to worry so much about the future. I want a nice future for myself. But I also want it for others. The whole point of going vegan, and getting into the business of liberating animals, is to shift from self-interest to working for the ‘greater-good’. Surely, even if we aren’t around to see the Future’s major changes taking place, that doesn’t alter anything about why we do what we do, now.