Pushy Vegans

2025:

We all use force. We use it to drive in a screw, we use it to stop the kids screaming all day. But force can be used unjustifiably. Whatever the circumstances, force is always ugly and ineffective. However deserving the animal cause is, we can’t afford to be ‘pushy’, not over something people aren’t yet fully aware of. To most people using animals is still ‘acceptable’. What we say to them about that, however well we put it, will always sound pushy. People don’t feel an obligation to listen, let alone agree. In our protest against animal cruelty we want to be seen as confident and determined, but nothing is achieved if we end up losing the audience.

On this subject of animals having rights, we want others to know about it. But being forceful and making people feel uncomfortable and taking the moral high ground, well, it’s a bit ‘yesterday’.

Whatever the reasoning behind using force, somehow the more reasoning approach comes across as more genuine. We have to find ways of stopping people running away as soon as they know we’re vegan.

Here’s a thought – if we poke fun at ourselves there’s a sense of relief on people’s faces when we start talking. It’s difficult to  describe a whole manner, and each of us is different in our style. But perhaps it’s our gentleness of approach which is picked up before we even open our mouths. There’s something in this notion of ‘vegan harmlessness’ which has a nice ring to it and we need to be living examples of just that. Maybe it can be cheeky but it never has to be pushy and certainly never offensive.