Dealing with loneliness

1767: 

Let’s face it, a tiny, tiny minority of people are vegans. We are outsiders and will remain so until substantial numbers of people start to take veganism seriously. It’s debilitating to be alone, so we form groups to give us a better chance of survival. A movement builds and everyone talks about how-it-could-be but never talks about the loneliness of individual members of that group who because of their viewpoint feel alienated because of it.

Some individuals can lay aside their social isolation and find security within their in-group, but often they get side-tracked by ambitions for status within the group. Groups often narrow down to the most active members who form committees, which can then lose sight of their original target of attempting to change speciesist attitude, and it becomes a group push for exposing some of the most terrible of animal abuses – “win this and we win everything”.

That might not be true, but even if it is, the needs of the individual activist often get forgotten about. The emotional support network of the group becomes weaker, while the group-need for strength grows greater. There’s a frantic search for finance for on-going projects, and that could have its own rewards if there was any evidence of making progress but mostly there’s none, or very little.

Animal Rights is going to be slow in coming, so marking up progress is often impossible. The calls on our reserves of patience are great. The individual activist, feeling their failure feels their own loneliness, and begins to feel resentful. “Why won’t my friends listen?” “Why aren’t people changing when the need for it is so obvious?” They may have their reasons, but they don't necessarily help us feel less lonely. It's more likely they make us feel the reality of the unshiftableness of human nature combined with the seductive qualities of thousands of different foods which suit all tastes. Somehow, each vegan must find a way of dealing with both loneliness and their determined avoidance of animal-based foods; with their unseducibility.