Vegans: Toughening up and softening up

1734: 

In these ‘early days’, of the growth of animal-rights consciousness, vegans need to become hard working, and to adhere to their plant-based food regime whilst helping to build a new product market. We need strength of character. We need to be committed, and press for change in others.

But how 'press'? It can work both ways. When people want to know what we’re on about, we can tell them, but we can't force people to want-to-know; we can't use unsolicited pressure. If we tell others that they MUST give up animal-eating, there’ll be a negative reaction.

“You want me to be like you? It’s a free world. I can eat what I like and no one’s going to stop me”.

The main question facing vegans is how we talk about animal issues without seeming like nut-case evangelists. We need to solve this question, of how to ‘talk-animals’ with people who initially don’t want to know. And we need to learn how to interest people working in the media, who also don’t want to know.

To a vegan, this subject is so ‘on our minds’ all the time that it’s difficult to resist the temptation of ‘talking vegan’ to non-vegan friends, in the hope of converting them. Generally, people won’t be pushed into anything quicker than they feel comfortable with. Pressure! It damages how people relate to us, and it’s worth keeping our friendly relationships, because they are our most precious resource; by being pushy with friends, it’s likely we could already be on the road to becoming ex-friends.

Friends keep us going when we are down, so it seems like a good idea to show our friends, and indeed everyone we speak to, that we will love them at all costs. We can answer questions, but we must resist the temptation to try to convert. I'd propose that unless they ask, we say little. Reserve the oration for those times we might be invited to speak in public. And of course, there’s always that latest and most valuable public forum, the Internet!