Teaching by Demonstration not Remonstration

1559: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

We are all trained from childhood to make judgments of other people. If someone appears 'bad' or stupid or weak; our judging of them supposedly makes us feel better about ourselves. It's called schadenfreude. We like that 'god-on-my-side' sort of feeling.  

Vegans enjoy having an inner glow, good health and a righteous, 'better-than' feeling. It comes with a clear conscience. But we are also representatives. We are trying to win recognition for an important principle; a principle which should be bigger than our own feelings of satisfaction.  
 
It’s the 'principle' that counts. It should never be just about me and my progress towards enlightenment. It's about the abolition of animal enslavement and realising how significant 'de-enslavement' is. In this present Age-of-Information, we're at that delicate stage of shifting consciousness. There's great fear in becoming more aware, because there are consequences. The ramifications of liberating animals touch on many aspects of human life. We might fear that having to give up the use of animals will drive us mad; that we will not be able to handle it. 

For those of us who've broken through that barrier, it's easy to forget this fear; so we shouldn’t be too quick to judge others. Timelines are different for all of us. Some people move towards greater consciousness at a slower pace. And if vegans get impatient with others' slowness to 'catch on', we risk doing great damage to their progress, as well as to the Animal Rights movement itself. As vegans, who represent other vegans, we have a responsibility not to damage the reputation some may have built, just because we feel the need to judge those who aren’t thinking like us. Our main job is to be information providers, not value imposers, although we can't help values being implied by the sort of information we impart. As soon as we try to convert others, we can almost guarantee that initially they'll turn away from us and our particular way of thinking. They might come around in time - but in their time.

Memory can play tricks on us. Most vegans (if not all) once had another viewpoint. We weren't always compassionate, non-violent and thinking along vegan lines - but we changed! In my own case, it hit me suddenly that veganism was a good idea. I wonder if it's possible that I might NOT have become vegan if I'd met up with judgmental vegans and found them too unattractive to identify with? What if I'd refused to be hurried?  What if I'd convinced myself that I didn't want to be like one of them? What if I'd gone back to the way of life that I knew?

Feeling safe (by being vegan) should cancel out any need for me to be judgmental of others who are not yet vegan. The violence in our society stems from some people (who consider themselves  'superior') making others feel 'inferior' and them reacting accordingly. If I encourage this, I add to the problem of making others feel bad about themselves. Why would I want to do that? Maybe I think that a little violence on my part will keep others in their place. Maybe I want to force others to rise to a higher, more respectable level - for their own good.

Ironically, 'being in the right' can put us 'in the wrong' when judgment is in the air.

Aggression and a disregard for the nonviolent principle can eventually contradict all the good we might believe in.