Dialogue between grown ups

1398: 

Any serious dialogue between people of opposite views needs a few rules. Otherwise it won’t flow. There must be a mutual respect for each person to hold their view, whether we agree with it or not.

Before we can be taken seriously as advocates (for the right of animals to have a life other than being the slaves of humans) something must be made clear. Our so called ‘adversaries’ need to be sure that we’re fair minded. They need to know we’ll give them a chance to have their say. Once that has been established, they’ll respect us as people, and then more likely to let us put our arguments.

On our part, if there’s any personal disapproval showing, it will get in the way of everything. If we can keep our arguments non-personal, we’ll show we aren’t afraid of opposition. If we can get to debate this subject without any hint of aggro, we’ll have achieved a lot for making the case for animal rights.

         

But for quite different reasons, debate is not easy for vegans. Most of us have a lot of bottled up anger. It needs to be kept under control. Not a trace of it needs to show.

Since we, as vegans, are the ones who want the dialogue in the first place, it’s our job to set the standard for any discussion of the subject. For many omnivores, this is the most sensitive subject to talk about – they know we know that they do what we don’t. They guess we want to make them feel ashamed of themselves.

For that reason alone, we must be sure that we aren’t trying to be ‘better-than’. We are NOT trying to hold a conversation to prove how great WE are. We aren’t boasting of our superior capacity for compassion. We aren’t parading our passion. We’re simply trying to find a way of discussing an important subject so that everyone involved learns something new. They from us, we from them.

Whether you became vegan yesterday or fifty years ago, it's important to remember that conversion to veganism should be a voluntary choice.  It's an internal agreement between our 'inner-machineries' - our highly developed senses and our more profound

decision-making machine.