Animal Rights via Non-Violence

1083:

A vegan might accuse the omnivore of having double standards - “You say you love animals but you eat them”.  Obviously this isn’t too-friendly an approach.  You might say, “You eat meat?  Wow!  That’s so uncool”.  Both are hostile approaches.

Myself, I wouldn’t be so up front.  I’d prefer to say, “It’s your choice.  Do what you like”.  But that would be a cowardly approach.  Wouldn’t I be better off being hostile rather than slimy-all-friendly, with just enough judgement in my voice to show disapproval?

             

With the animal-eater we can go two ways.  If we speak too softly, then nothing we say will be heard, and if we speak too loudly we run the risk of offending people.

Whatever way we choose, it’s likely to shock. We’ll either be dismissed or attacked.  It rather depends on how we put things.  How do we say something strongly without inviting an overreaction, making further discussion impossible?

           

Perhaps we can consider understatement.  It isn’t what’s expected, so it might just slip in under the radar.  “I recommend a no-cholesterol food regime”, or “There are some very interesting plant-based foods on the market”. If you can light up a previously dark corner, open up an alternative food-route, it might change nothing at the time but afterwards it gets to be thought-about.  This will probably not happen if we try too hard to hammered home our ‘shocking message’.

           

The whole process of ‘changing a person’s mind’ isn’t a simple, quick or easy thing to do. The ‘current mind-set’ is the result of many decades of attitude-forming. Trying to change a person’s mind, which has always been involved in daily routine, is made less easy if we try to force it. Most people we talk to are very sensitive to criticism, implied or otherwise. Animal issues are sensitive and have to be packaged in a non-judgemental way, so as not to corner people.

           

Being vegan, we are against any sort of animal eating or animal-use, whether flesh or by-product.  It makes us angry, and in the past we’ve earned a reputation for being angry, which we now have to live down.

We need to get across that we regard animals as our friends (and we don’t eat our friends!) but to then find a way to talk casually and yet profoundly on this subject, but without a trace of attack. This is a much more sophisticated interaction to aim for with our adversaries. Whatever we have to say, it should appear as a completely non-violent approach.