Reconciliation

1960:

Playing the ‘blame game’ is popular with some vegans. The Animal Industry and consumers in general make for an easy target. So, the blaming-vegans ask themselves, “Why not give them some curry?”

Certainly, it helps to release our anger and frustration. But, constructively speaking, there isn’t much to be gained from apportioning blame. What’s done is done and can’t be undone.

After the apartheid era in South Africa there was a need to move on, towards reconciliation, to avoid a blood bath. It showed a deliberate moving away from the idea of revenge. It’s often revenge that lets us enjoy, for a moment, the misfortunes of those who aren’t like us and who deserve retribution. But this is where true compassion shows through. It’s hard to imagine how one can be reconciled to the meat-heads, because their species-apartheid is so mean, and so accepting of cruelty. It’s especially reprehensible because, for them, it’s so safe.

Nevertheless, there’s a great need for vegans and non-vegans to make a point of contact, to be talking together about their differences – it’s the only way we’re ever going to deal with the very worst mistakes we’ve each already made.

We all need to turn into compassionate folk - isn’t it as simple as that? First off, it’s a personal thing, concerning food choices. Then we get to the principle of non-violence and being non-judgmental. And then it’s about feeling at peace with our detractors. Not to excuse them, but to be on friendly terms with them whilst discussions are underway, with the aim of helping them to restructure their habits. And to restructure our own too.

Once we see each other making an attempt to accommodate the expectations of the other, we’ll automatically move past the accusing stage and be on the road to repair. Once we can feel some movement, albeit some small steps of progress, we can, perhaps for the first time, experience optimism.

Ultimately (surely!) our overall goal is to focus on increasing the world’s optimism about itself. We can’t do that if we’re pessimistic or if we’re forecasting the end of the world.

Vegans have certainly got to get over their judgement-based looking-down-their-noses at those who aren’t vegans - yes, we have to realign our attitudes, for sure. It gives us a bad look. But for people in general, there are hard times ahead, when we are all judged by future generations. If we don’t do anything about animal slavery now, history will say we were an uncaring people. Future generations will accuse us, quite rightly, of being too casual about a potentially catastrophic problem. There will be no excuses, since the records will show that we knew everything we needed to know to make the necessary changes.