I'm 'right'

1597:

In the best of all possible worlds we work for the greater good rather than our own good. The idea of having such ‘spiritual’ goals might seem a bit off-putting. So maybe, all we really need is a milder manner, and then we don’t have to feel so spiritual about it. It’s just a matter of putting ourselves second and addressing the greater good first, and without fear.

Whatever fears we may have, they are nothing compared to the torments of those we’re aiming to help. The problems each of us faces might be seen within that context – of others’ greater suffering. For vegans it comes down to straight-out empathy with exploited animals. The theory goes: by deflecting the focus away from ourselves, we can deal with others' problems more intelligently, because there's far less self-interest to get in the way. Self-interest can be a great motivator but it's also a dead weight, often sucking the best juices from the fruit before anyone else can make use of what’s left over. Coming back to the ideal - self-interest should be nicely balanced with others' interests. There'd be no better way of setting a good standard for the future than performing acts of altruistic kindness, which themselves might even act to make us become proud to be human.

Even when altruism is unselfconscious, and therefore at its most powerful, our main mistake is that we deal with closer-to-home problems first, to get them out of the way, so we have a clear run at the more global stuff (call it working for ‘The Greater Good’) but we might never get that far. We might never quite clean up our own act (to our own satisfaction) to be able to consider ‘the greater good’; because we might never finish cleaning up personal issues, we might never get around to focusing on the big issues, which are based on more fundamental principles.

Although it's possible that vegans might not have cleared up all of their own personal issues, they have made one big step in life, they've chosen to see animal cruelty as top priority, and with this, they've addressed a very BIG issue. But the problem is that many vegans don't know where to go from there. The only obvious thing left for us to do, it seems, is condemn. We condemn both what is wrong and those who do the wrong or those who tacitly support the wrong. And by condemning, we project such levels of disapproval that we appear to be looking down our noses at anyone who is not yet vegan [imagine how unfair that must seem to young people and children, and the genuinely ignorant adults amongst us!!] - we seem to be saying that in order for people to improve, they need to be more like us. That's the perception, especially for those who choose to denigrate vegans. So, perhaps vegans could learn something important from this common perception.

If you and I are already vegan, it means we feel as though we are indisputably right. The big danger in being 'right' is that we can't help telling people that we are. And then, it's doubtful if we're much help to non-vegans or learning much from them about ourselves. Because of this, more than anything else, people may suspect our motives. It's probably nothing other than a mistrust of something not properly understood, but we vegans do build our own trap; we're rightly proud of being vegan and we can never resist the opportunity to let it be known that we are. And, when noticed, then we can't help trying to persuade them to our way of thinking. I am guilty as charged!

But that's all okay, if it were not for that damned perception. It's the perception that wounds us more deeply than ridicule. And non-vegans' negative perceptions of vegans is common. "Vegans are what they are, in order to chalk up their own, chiefly, spiritual achievements". Now, this is an accusation worth looking at. If only to examine vegan intelligence.

It is true that sometimes we vegans are keener to show that we aren't wrong than that we are right. What I think many of us are saying is, "Someone like me is too intelligent to be wrong". It's almost as if that means, "I'm better than you, so you'd do well to listen to me". Vegans might not be natural boasters. We might be modest and quiet, but on this matter, we are torn, because we all have an inner compulsion to be doing 'our bit for the animals’. It's possibly true that some of us animal activists know we are being ineffective when weér at our most judgemental and disapproving, but nevertheless carry on doing what we do. Our perception of ourselves is that we are being as we are, and 'condemning', mainly to make ourselves feel better about ‘our commitment to the cause’. But I think part of this is wanting to confirm, within ourselves, that we are in the 'right'. Perhaps always 'right'.