Mutual support

1358: 

Because people who aren’t vegan dismiss it as unimportant, they aren’t likely to give much encouragement to vegans.  For us this is a hard cause to fight because of that.  Of course, we aren't ‘being-vegan’ to win admiration, it’s just that being ignored is hard to bear.  We all need some sort of recognition.  Vegans get it mostly from fellow vegans, but it’s thin pickings because other vegans also suffer from marginalisation and encouragement-deprivation.

It often pans out this way: vegan magazines and newspaper articles usually focus on food and health issues, with some mention of factory farming to cover the ethics angle.  That’s about as radical as it gets, and enough of a package that we might can glean some sort of support for it.  It’s rare that we see writers focusing on the broader ethics concerning the rights and wrongs of human-use-of-animals.  Whatever branch of animal issues we’re presenting, part of what we are pushing for is approval, which we reckon will help to motivate us.

For vegans, our main source of motivational energy must be drawn from within, probably as part of our own self-development (which includes our own health improvement).  But to maintain focus on the most needy areas, eventually leading to animals having a right to a life, we need some sort of altruism.  I don't know where it comes from but its aim is clear enough -  to develop empathy.  And a big part of that is always going to be acting selflessly and without reward.  When it comes to advocating for animals, there's going to be no appreciation coming from the carnivores, and there will be nothing coming from animals themselves (wishing to "extend their grateful thanks", etc.).

         

On the positive side there’s potentially a lot of energy from one another, just by connecting with each other, in unspoken support.  No one needs to be 'needy' or give that impression.  If it comes, it comes as unasked-for encouragement.  The trap here is in expecting it.

If you’re a vegan, then supporting other vegans is a big part of the whole thing.  Whatever cause we’re fighting for, part of the obligation which comes with the cause is giving support to others, not calculated out of kindness but coming spontaneously from one's excitement at finding another's enthusiasm for the greater good and for their acting from sound motives.

         

Each of us is capable of being content with very little encouragement, not because we’re good but because we’re intelligent enough not to run up gratitude-debts, where we end up owing-big with little to give back.  And if there are only 'thin pickings', then in the end it comes down to building one's own reasons to be altruistic, and being altruistic without showing a trace of it.