Debating vegan principle

1032: 

Why are we so keen to talk about Animal Rights, so keen to alter other people’s habits?  Is it  a wish to implant a sense of optimism in others - “Go Vegan and Save the Planet” - or is it something else?  Perhaps we need other people to give us their emotional support?  Perhaps it’s just an out-bursting of something wonderful.

           

When we start to see potential in vegan principle, the idea explodes with possibilities, and it’s likely we’ll be busting to talk about it.  But we discover with some shock, disappointment and even outrage that no one wants to know about all that.  We get cold-shouldered.  It seems that the majority of people are suspicious of ‘minority types’. Everything is thrown at us to either shut us up or bring us back into their fold.  They think we are deluded, or that we are less sincere than we seem.  We speak about kindness to animals but they pick up from us that we don’t feel quite so kindly towards people, especially people who don’t agree with us?

  

Whether this is true or not, the rejection we vegans often experience makes us try all the harder to come across as sincere people.  And ultimately that is not such a bad thing.  Vegans may have to learn the hard way, to work on themselves in order to be utterly sincere, even if it’s true that we are needy for others’ support and encouragement.  We need to be able to show that we have no ulterior motives. And if we feel vulnerable, then we can be open about that too.  How sincere we appear is central to our credibility, and eventually our effectiveness as advocates for animals.