Going Public

1534: 

"All meatheads are murderers" - when we start hurling abuse in public it works wonders, in the short term.  At the time, it unifies fellow protesters and makes us all feel good, because it sounds brave and aims to strike fear into people’s hearts.  But unless we’re willing to continually escalate that approach, it loses its power and eventually fizzles out.  With any big- talk and threats, we make a rod for our own back.

The aim of any Animal Rights protest should be to win people over.  It should start with setting a good example, the same as we expect of others.  If we want to ‘go public’, we must be prepared to be cold shouldered.  We shouldn’t be upset if everyone ignores what we say. Most people are products of a powerful culture, imprinted from an early age, which tells us that animals are meant to be used - and following on from this, that the usable ones may be kept captive, killed and eaten. In the light of that culture, all animal-friendly arguments will appear ridiculous.

It’s possible for us to just push through, to keep talking past the silent treatment.  But perhaps that’s not the point.  Gone are the days when we casually bump into people on the street corner and converse with them on serious matters. Today's new ideas don’t circulate like that.  We could possibly find new ideas in the media, but that is too tightly controlled when it comes to this subject.  Social networks and the Internet are more informative, but on this subject no one wants the extra aggravation in their life - if it’s Animal Rights or veganism it spells something highly inconvenient, so any available information is often by-passed.  For us it’s always going to be a long haul for which we need the patient, step by step approach.  And the first step is the most important one - attempting to make that initial connection.

We need to show that we’re genuine.  Establish that and we're half way to making a connection.  Then we have to be ready to answer any question.  Then, if there are differences of opinion, we need to deal with that in a non-threatening way.  We need to come across as being interested in helping improve others’ lives, whilst at the same time wanting to liberate animals.  We should be seen to have no other agenda.