1269:
Vegans are used to people
trying to have a go at them. Usually
it’s a very half-hearted attempt to make our ‘over sensitivity towards animals’
look foolish. In company, an insulting
comment is often enjoyed by everyone.
Which is all the more reason
why I shouldn’t let myself be provoked. I
don’t need to show outrage, although I should be sure my arguments can ride out
these minor annoyances. At the very
least I should be able to say something which sounds, at the very least, competent.
Meat eaters, from their safe,
majority position, always like to put down the righteous, aka the vegan. They want to show how easy it is to make us
angry. They usually try to wind us up,
to find an excuse NOT to have to listen to what they don’t want to hear.
If I get angry, it gives them
the green light to shut the door in my face. So, I tell myself, "DON'T get angry".
Because if I do get a hearing, I must be prepared for a back-attack. That's
part of the game - I’ve dared to question their most private lifestyle habits,
they're defending themselves from what they perceive to be my 'attack'.
Most carnivores don’t care
about farm animals' suffering, and don’t want to talk about it, but sometimes they
do like a bit of biff. They taking us on. So, as vegans, we need to be ready
for a bit of ‘dinner table attacking’.
The aim of a sharp-edged joke
is to attract attention and gather support from others sitting around the table
- the usual majority versus minority game. So, if I take umbrage or withdraw in
silence, then it seems that I just can’t come up with a sharp enough retort to
fit the occasion, and that makes them smell blood and go in for the kill.
These are still early days
for Animal Rights; we’re building foundations and encouraging new
attitudes towards animals. We’re outlining law reform that will illegalise
abattoirs and animal farming. And that
would include the keeping of birds in cages (whether they’re budgerigars or
hens) and fish in bowls or fish-farming tanks.
This line of thinking annoys people hugely, and they'll sometimes want
to tell us so. My point here is that
it’s futile to spend too much time fighting with everyone who disagrees with
us.
For my part, I don’t want to
waste my life fighting every local skirmish. Maybe those who laugh at us do need to be
ignored, if only because jokers and ‘people with vested interests’ are still in
the ascendancy. Many of them are just
busting to put us down if they get the chance. Discretion might be the better part of valour
(as in ‘going in boots and all’).
I know that my defence of
farmed animals is right. Of course it
is, because it’s the logical outcome of the whole anti-slavery movement. Obviously it feels right to me. So, it’s a waste of my emotional energy if I
get upset that others don’t agree. Surely, it helps to have a good sense of
humour about it all, if only to preserve our own sanity.
If I've got to face opposition,
it’s ridiculous for me to wage war on the heckler's every puff of smoke. I don’t need to take on every red neck I meet,
or parry every joke. I don’t have to be
afraid of any of this, because the fact is that none of our adversaries
have ‘the bottle’ to take us on in serious debate.
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