Winning ears

1458: 

  

Non-vegans represent the vast majority of humans: vegans represent a minuscule percentage.  Numbers of vegans are not yet increasing rapidly enough to make veganism fashionable.  Vegans don’t stand out enough as being smarter, kinder, more powerful, more creative or more persuasive than anyone else, not noticeably anyway.  There’s nothing much, other than appearing more healthy, that looks attractive about us.  If we have fewer self-destructive habits or better ethics they don’t stand out enough to catch people’s attention.

If vegans want others to be drawn to our principles we need to be able to talk inspiringly, that is, use arguments that are, at the very least, watertight.  But more importantly, we must be beyond reproach ourselves.  We have to be squeaky genuine.  And we don’t need to go around telling everybody that we are ‘vegan’ either, not because people don’t need to know but because it looks as though we are fishing for compliments.

If I can play down this side of myself I’ll be in a better position to have my say, without seeming to press my point.  On no account do I want to be identified as a door-knocking evangelist, and to that end I resist any temptation to convert people.  Unless I’m asked, I say little.  I volunteer information on request.  My answers are specific to the question asked, and I go easy on the hype.  I find it gives me a better chance of winning ears and eliciting inquiries.