On The Nose

2048:

The hurtfulness of value judgement comes when we demand to be listened to, when we think the rightness of our cause gives us the right to make demands. People won’t admire our stand or want to be like us if we look pushy.

For most people ‘our cause’ is not their priority; they might believe there are other more important things to consider. Of course, from our viewpoint ‘they’ are wrong. But in their own viewpoint they’re right.

All vegans want change, but it’s big change, ‘animal-liberating-change, and we want it soon. We refuse to accept that there are huge forces against us, swaying people’s minds. Swift change may not be imminent. In regard to Animal Rights, ‘enlightenment’ may not happen any time soon.

Perhaps that’s why we’re sometimes tempted to say, “To hell with it, let’s just make war on the carnivores and have done with it”. But this devil-may-care approach is not appropriate. Diets are changing anyway, plant-based foods are becoming known as ‘safe foods’, as probably most adults agree, in theory. We probably have a much bigger audience of potential listeners than we realise, if not quite as full-on as we’d like. Omnivores might be warming to the idea, even interested in what we’ve got to say, even attracted, but that doesn’t mean they want to join the ‘vegan club’.

For most, who are curious, it isn’t yet a fully fledged conviction. The gulf between the mindless omnivore and the enlightened vegan is huge. How big the middle ground is no one knows, but it’s likely that, at present, most omnivores would prefer we weren’t around to pester them.

Vegans may be ‘on the nose’ to omnivores. But things are changing, and we should be seen as forerunners, optimists and resource people. We should be sitting on the sunny side of the hill rather than the dark side. We should be an access point for an attractive lifestyle and an attractive attitude.

Ultimately, attraction draws people in to see what’s on offer and to hear what’s being said.

Vegans may have two aims, to draw people to our view and to keep out of their way at the same time, staying down wind of their lunchtime ‘cremations’. Let’s be with them, but not too close to them!