1062:
Being vegan means putting up with people’s misconception of
veganism. Vegans can seem to have ‘attitude’,
to be ‘refusniks’, to be resentful and uncooperative, thinking themselves superior.
But worst of all, we always want to talk
about it.
A non-vegan friend of mine mentioned to me the other day
that global warming was the biggest issue facing us, but I suggested that there
was another equally big issue threatening the world. It was the practice of animal eating. But before I could go on to explain my
outrageous theory I was stopped. He
‘knew’ what subject I wanted to bring up and he thought I was “getting a bit
obsessive”, which was his way of closing down the discussion. The problem was: he thought he knew what I was
going to say, guessing I’d have no trouble opening up a whole, deep discussion of
certain matters for which he had neither the time nor the inclination to get
into. So I never got the chance to
explain what I had in mind.
It’s not easy to find anyone to listen to you these days,
especially when people get wind of what we are trying to bring up. But that is the reality. Ours is not a fashionable subject for
discussion, whereas climate change, environmental degradation is.
Often, vegans can’t even get off the starting blocks, and
this is something we just have to come
to terms with. It may not be how we’d
like it to be, but this is how it actually is, right now. If we want to experience any breakthrough,
it’s likely we won’t get any ‘Eureka moments’ handed to us on a plate. It has to be worked for.
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