No Need for Force

1250:

I’m better than others and entitled to judge others who disagree with me.  If I can’t get people to agree with me I use value judgement to force them my way – since I’m right, I’m entitled to use whatever means are available to make you ‘right’ too.

If I attempt to judge someone’s values, it’s a subtle form of violence.  Even though on the one hand I’m bravely defending animals from being exploited, I can still also be violating people’s space and their freedom of choice.  It’s dangerous, because free-will and choice are regarded, by almost everyone, as sacrosanct.  Over the ages, free-will has been fought for and won.  We (here in the West) believe ourselves to be part of a ‘free-willed’ society.  We don’t want to lose that.

So, when a vegan come along, who seems to want to take that away, there’s a negative reaction to “You are wrong, I am right, this is what you must do”.

From an outsider’s point of view, there’s something threatening in anyone who is holier-than-thou - one usually wants to bring them ‘down to size’.  Anyone who puts themselves forward, and thinks themselves better, cleverer, wealthier, better looking or more righteous, automatically appears unattractive.  No one likes a person who is self satisfied.

Once you get vegans who aren’t judgemental, everything changes.  A vegan who doesn’t appear to be pushy or too overly persuasive is assessed on a different plane.  Firstly, that they’re unlikely to be judgemental, secondly that they’re talk-with-able.

For vegans, we might run the risk of seeming to be too passive, because we’re not quite convinced of our own arguments, as if we’re too hesitant to 'come on too strongly' with others – it makes us that much more easily ignored.  But the advantage is that we don’t ignite anger, don’t deserve to be aggressively attacked, which means we don’t have to go onto the defensive.

The theory might go something like this: sit back and enjoy advocating Animal Rights.  Who can complain, when we give no one any excuse to get heavy with us.

It’s like watching a movie, the movie is speaking its message but passively.  It doesn’t leap out and judge its audience for not engaging with it.  Similarly, books don’t judge us.  We learn from them, that’s all.  We can chuck them out of the window if needs be.  The book won’t be offended.  Likewise, as a vegan I might ask questions but no one needs to answer them nor should they feel compelled to, or be judged badly if they don’t.

So, I put up my arguments.  They go into circulation.  Maybe what I say causes a disturbance, and therefore attracts attention.  But that’s not what I’m setting out to do in my own mind.  We’re safe from being attacked or being rubbished if we’re consciously trying  NOT force the issue.