Sunday, January 29, 2017

Not All Non-Vegans Are Hostile To Us


1904:

If we ever hear someone say, “I’ve never been clear what vegans stand for. Is it a health or religion thing?” The answer has to go through a couple of stages to make any sense to them. That’s because it really isn’t about health and religion as much as it is about sentient animals, suffering at the hands of humans. We can explain that it’s a matter of the ethics of not using animals because it isn’t  necessary, and therefore that it shouldn’t be happening. If we can get to that point, and feel our questioner understands, we might then go on to talk about the farmer.



The humans, who are in direct contact with animals, producing from them, making a living from farming them, are likely to compromise animal welfare standards, to stay in business. The more competition there is from other producers the more likely cruel husbandry methods will be used to keep production costs to a minimum, to reduce competition. Because of this, all animal products are tainted. For those of us avoiding them altogether, there are beneficial offshoots where ‘health and religion’ come in. We eat nutritious foods from which we derive our well-being, and the spiritual benefits come with leading non-violent lives. But whenever we hear a person asking a question – why vegan?, that’s a reminder for us not to lump every non-vegan into the same basket. We are all different, at different stages of awareness and freedom to change. Which is why vegans don’t need to lay any blanket judgements on those who aren’t yet ready to see things our way.



I once attended a talk on veganism and the speaker made the mistake of asking the audience to raise their hands if they were ‘vegans’, leaving those who didn’t raise their hands feeling profoundly uncomfortable, and perhaps wishing they’d never shown up.



When vegans are around, how do we make people feel? Perhaps it’s a cornered-rat feeling. So, as animal advocates often carrying reputations of others’ making, we need to ease the situation. We need to step aside from our need to set the moral standards right, and simply mention Morality which tells people it’s okay to use animals. By the way we say that we show which side of the fence we are on. A lot can be done with body language, neutral facial features, letting ourselves be receptive, listening and watching, being all-ears and not-being patronising. Patience is useful here, proving we are not wanting to pounce, or defeat our adversary. In fact right-at-this-point isn’t the time to be passing on our views or our values. At this point, we need to find out if a person is receptive. Or to put it as crudely as I possibly can, it’s no good the dog fucking the bitch if she’s not on heat.



Omnivores encountering vegans will give off certain signals. And we pick them up just as subconsciously as they signal them to us. Our reaction to those signals marks us down as trustworthy or not. End of.



Sometimes, if this subject crops up, I very often take the initiative to close it down, suspecting that it was probably their good manners that allowed them to bring the subject up in the first place, not out of interest but out of respect for me. Therefore, I might return the courtesy by saying (but only in my thoughts to myself), “Yes, I read your signals, and I see you’re not ready for this.” 



Our backing-off from a volatile situation is good strategy, if nothing else. If we can sense an embarrassing pause in the conversation, where they are toying with the idea of either confronting the subject or swerving onto a more fatuous aspect of the subject, then we know they are about to trivialise something in their minds which they don’t really think is trivial at all. Since we are interacting with the omnivore we should know to treat them with caution on matters of conscience. This is where we must gauge what’s right, and for whom. The object of the exercise is to engage, not to indulge in the ‘Coming. Ready-or-not’ approach.



All in all, we need to listen to the urban myths, the excuses and justifications – everything we really don’t want to be listening to. But let’s now have roles – me the vegan, you the non-vegan. I’m listening to what you’ve got to say even though I disagree with you completely. Remaining passive feels like I’m betraying the animals we’re fighting for, just by listening and not ‘putting you right’. But I’m allowing things to stay as they are for now, because I need to find out as soon as possible what your view on animal rights is. And very often that is made clear enough by what you might be willing to tell me or let me see when you’re eating.

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