Strong on Compassion

2056:

If an omnivore believes themselves to be compassionate by nature, how do they feel when they meet someone who accuses them of not caring about animals?

When a vegan condemns an omnivore, it can cut deep. It may not stimulate self-examination but the very opposite. The ‘dominant human’, the average omnivore, accepts that they are superior to animals. They will therefore meets this sort of attack with derision. And then they’ll counter attacks. They’ll question the integrity or sanity of the attacker. For them, what is being questioned here is so fundamental to life, and so universal amongst humans in every country of the world, that a personal change to veganism would seem pointless.

Vegans, of course, don’t see it that way. But this is where we, as vegans, have probably got to ask ourselves a central question concerning our own motives – “What do I want from Animal Rights? Do I want the feeling of being right, to feel superior or to communicate what I know? Certainly, we may know we have a watertight case. And if that makes us appear rather too confident about our views, do we abuse that advantage? This sense of being right can emboldens us, in a sort of ‘quasi-violence’ - a stab here and a punch there, to drive our message home.

The sledgehammer mentality reminds me of kids fighting in the playground. It’s always a game of one-upmanship. It’s a need to boast. As adults, we find ourselves still doing the same thing, but now the new ‘cool’ is all about looking relaxed and fearless, showing that one isn’t afraid of danger. The meat-eater’s macho is played out. The vegan’s macho is played out too. They do it by defiance. We do it by making value judgements. The omnivore tries to disarm us mentally, uses laughter to ease the tension, hides behind nervous laughter, allowing time to formulate a dismissive remark. Or they go the other way, and  refuse to talk about any of ‘it’, decaling the whole subject of Animal Rights a ‘non-issue’.  

We ask that classic question – why do you never understand? They ask their classic question - how we can be so intrusive?

Somehow, we each have to find a balance between these two questions, for each question is profound, and commonly felt.

This is why, as vegans, we have to internalise our outrage and sadness and heartbreak. It’s a millstone around our neck. Although our feelings feel like our strong spot, if it becomes emotional baggage then it’s our weak spot. We might be sincere about our pity for the animals but we might also pity ourselves at being socially excluded.  If we are to be effective as activists, we have to get used to exclusion. It’s strengthening in the long run.