Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Dealing with Opposition

1250: 
      
If we are ever in doubt we find some certainty in instinct.  Somewhere deep in our psyche, instinct confirms our decisions so that we feel safer.  In return we use instinct again to keep us on an even keel and avoid being violent.  We live in peace, but another force in us, that dares us forward, urges us to explore the unknown, to get into self-discovery.

Animal Rights and Animal Liberation is all about that.  Instinct tells us that we should be working on a central principle, the need for freedom, for ourselves and therefore for others too, human and non-human.  And because it’s so obviously right, that slavery is so obviously wrong, we draw strength from within to defend the need to liberate, to end slavery.  And if others don't agree, then that instinctive strength prevents our becoming hypersensitive to criticism.  However ugly people's responses are to what we say, we know that it never matches the ugliness of what we’ve seen, hidden, in the animal gulags.

But instinct also has a way of detaching us from the real world, and we need to keep our feet on the ground.  So, if I have found out something important, it doesn’t mean anyone else wants me preaching to them about it.  They have the right to be left in peace.  So, we need to find ways of respecting that before we ever get to the point of pushing our point of view.  If someone can arrive at the same conclusion as we have, of their own free will, then they can move on at their own pace, and not be held back by their resentment of being preached-at. 

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