1461:
Ostensibly, we might have
been invited to speak, but in order to speak freely and say what we want to say
fully, we need to get past the defence barriers a 'listener' might put up. We need to get his or her permission to open
up this taboo area.
Talking about abattoirs and
meat eating is relatively straight forward, since the audience is likely to be generally
interested in vegetarianism, even considered giving up meat themselves. But when we go down the road of abolitionism,
veganism and animal rights, we tread on the most dangerous ground, because we
eventually must arrive at the dairy.
That's where the alarm bells go off, when people think we’re going to
attack their cakes and ice cream and adding milk to their coffee, etc. Everyone knows how many thousands of food
products use milk as an ingredient. (And
egg). Giving up milk means giving up
using each one of these thousands of products.
And this is where each person will weigh up the implications of showing
concern for the dairy cow.
So, as a start, we can
explain that most people are unaware of what happens on the dairy farm. We may need to warn them that we’re heading
into a contentious area. Then, before explaining the details of how milk is
extracted from cows, cover the details of the calf's role in the cow's
lactation process, leading to the abuse of both cow and calf. Most milk drinkers want to believe that the
dairy is not a cruel place and the milk from cows is good for us - both untrue.
The ‘dairy misconception’
will almost certainly bring about disagreement. People want to defend their right to use this
particular product without qualm. If we
try to induce guilt, they'll turn off.
It needs skill on our part to pull this off - this is where we need to
draw out questions and encourage discussion. Prizing out the deeper concerns of people at
this point is crucial. Body language is
everything: we must be truly inviting. Our
tone of voice: it must be calm never shrill, and we must try to maintain eye
contact and remember to smile! We're
wanting them to feel comfortable to talk about an uncomfortable subject. And if
we're talking to a group of people and they're listening, we need to show
confidence in what we are speaking about, and that means we're not making too
many references to notes. If we know our
stuff, the thread of our talk should largely be remembered.
Unlike a book, which one can
put down and then pick up again later, direct interaction with people when promoting
difficult-to-swallow concepts, like Animal Rights, means keeping ourselves out
of the way and becoming almost like a book. But most importantly, we need to show
understanding of the other person’s struggle to come to grips with what we’re
saying.
A speaker who seems a bit vulnerable,
instead of holier than thou, is more approachable. And in order to be in touch with the way
things are today, public speakers should consider that ‘going-vegan’ may be
harder today than ever before, because there are so many more competing pressures
on people to change. Self-development is
almost an industry today; Animal Rights is just one cause amongst many.
When advocating for Animal
Rights, it could seem that we care less about people and more about animals. So we should stress that we’re trying to win
over our fellow humans in order to liberate them, by way of liberating
animals; as if the purpose of this particular awareness is to seize our chance
to change things for the animals and humans, simultaneously. In today's society, there’s a need for large
numbers of people to put enough pressure on legislators to pass laws, to bring
an end to the abuse of animals. And that
means we need a lot of people to be on side. To pull this off, veganism needs
to be seen as attractive, significant and meaningful. If the audience can identify with that, they
might take what we are saying seriously, even about dairy products.
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