Communicating without Violence

1378: 

When we become vegan, if we speak up, then we automatically stand out, and obviously our nearest and dearest will notice.  We run the risk of becoming outcasts.  Our decision to stand apart like this may seem radical but it’s necessary, in order to balance the bull-headedness of the majority of people.  When we criticise the institutional violence of the meat trade we also criticise the consumer; most people will feel that is being levelled at themselves, because they eat meat.  So when we imply that omnivores are guilty of “attacking and killing animals on a mass scale”, we will always inflame emotions.  And that makes us seem aggressive.  That’s hard to handle maybe, but it’s not surprising considering what we are saying.  For our part, there’s no reason to fall out with our friends about it.  We must come to accept emotional reactions and learn to live with them.  And hope they can do the same!

         

For any of us who believe that what society is doing to animals is wrong, our making a strong statement might seem justified.  To us.  We may be surprised at the strength of the reaction we get - that no one takes this subject seriously or even appears interested in it.  But why be surprised?  If we go out to meet them and ‘stir’, we’re effectively attacking a person’s whole lifestyle.  Obviously the animal advocate is going to be seen as intrusive if they bring the subject up, so we’re not going to be winning any brownie points from them on the strength of being passionate.  That passion, along with our message, will always be downplayed or ignored.  People will always turn away - they have to, because they eat animals.  By trying to shock people into changing their minds, we risk pushing our arguments too hard and too fast.  We don’t need to take advantage of a captive audience, and free-willed people won’t stand for that anyway.  That’s why we need to examine this interface very carefully, to see what opportunity there is for creative communication.