Facing a dramatic change in life

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To inconvenience oneself by becoming vegan, for the sake of farm animals, will seem unnecessary to most people.  They won’t think through the logic of the issues.  They’ll come to the conclusion that we vegans are just attention-seeking.

Our biggest challenge is to tell people the reason we’re vegan, and to go on to say what we have to say, despite rejection, disagreement and even ridicule.  And that means we have to remain vegan without the need for others’ approval or encouragement.

I know ex-activists who’ve given up in frustration, angry at the people’s ethical weakness over animal issues; they haven’t reckoned on it being so slow to catch on.  But when you think about it (the long tradition of humans exploiting animals) you know that such a major shift of emphasis, from human-centred concern to concern for the non-human, is a huge shift.

It seems that animal issues, because they are so closely connected with our daily food, are shunted off into the too hard department.  In a conspiracy of silence, the issues are never talked about, either in the media or at home around the dinner table.  Maybe people make a small gesture, mainly for health reasons - they reduce their intake of red meat.  Or maybe they go further, giving up meat altogether (for ethical and health reasons).  But in general, stopping ALL compliance with animal farming and boycotting ALL animal produce is, for most people, just not on.  It’s out of the question, because the using-of-animals suits their own convenience so well.

If we do decide to boycott animal products there is obviously going to be a dramatic change to our daily life.  However, if we don’t, then we are condoning the abattoir and all that it stands for.  If demand for animal products dropped, abattoirs would have to shut down; if abattoirs shut down, animal farming would stop, and animal products would then become unavailable.  This might be the consciousness we are heading towards in the future, but since it would spell such a dramatic change in the way humans operate, we can safely reckon that it won’t happen overnight.  All the time there is no immediate threat to human survival, such a change is unlikely to happen.  And if that particular change doesn’t seem likely, then a vegan might lose heart.

So, this is the next in the line of difficulties vegans face.