Promotion of veganism

At first, when we’re going vegan, there’s a mixture of concerns that we have about ourselves. And that’s just in our private lives. Alongside personal worries, there grows a concern for others, the animals and for people, especially people we know who are bogged down in speciesist thinking. That concern leads on to our wanting to promote veganism and non-speciesism, but it isn’t easy. There’s not much out there to help us. Promotion is tough because veganism still has so little social momentum of its own. All we can do, if we have the energy, is to keep the issues alive. And along the way, deal quietly with any personal problems (about our own vegan lifestyle), at least until the ‘good idea’ is established in our own lives. It all takes time, developing it and then practising it, but that’s relatively simple compared to the complexities of promoting it. Many live private vegan lives, they keep quiet and so no one is affected. Others are out there under the noses of everyone, advocating veganism to anyone they meet. But neither really promote veganism.
There are those others of us who like to see ourselves as dynamic activists and who dream of living in a vegan world, but we aren’t necessarily very effective at communication. We question the old methods and find them wanting, so why do we fail? Perhaps because the changes we want to see are so fundamental and seem to most people so radical. We almost have to expect NOT to be stunningly successful. There’s so much to deal with on so many different levels. We have to look after our own image as well as the image of the idea itself. We have to make our ‘good idea’ attractive enough to be habit forming if taken up – quite a task! If that seems unlikely then the even greater hurdle is to get other vegans to discuss promotional ideas. And it’s here where the big problem may be. Success may only be possible if we can be as equals amongst ourselves. We need to own our difficulties, stresses, failures because we all experience them. The more we can show what each of us is going through, for better or for worse, the better we can understand each other, and then the better we can solve the promotion problem.
And while some might have been at veganism longer than others, no one knows the definitive way to sell this idea, because everyone thinks differently. The closer we are when talking, the clearer the communication is going to get. The more at ease we are with our subject and the people we are with, the more effectively we can get something across that is dear to our heart. Apart from all the information we’d like to impart, we should spare a moment to explain the most central truth. That we, as vegans, are all undergoing the same journey, hopefully a less judgmental one, and there are no ‘right’ answers to communication. The only thing we can be sure about is that the principles (of veganism) are unshakeable and potentially world-transforming. Now that sounds attractive enough to make promotion seem a fairly straightforward business! Doesn’t it?

Heat stress

My good idea (becoming vegan) is like a beautifully engineered car with its engine cold, needing a kick start. My veganism, my ideals, seem half clear and half fuzzy. I wonder if I’ve laid too much hope on making these changes. Here I am, trying to change into a non-violent person (‘Go Vegan’ the slogan says). But I need more than fearlessness. I need a confidence that will uphold my ideals and ignore what others think about me. I’m inspired by the good idea but that doesn’t mean I understand everything about it, like what the implications of it will be. Perhaps it’s a bit like when we fall in love and then have to learn how to live together. We grasp the idea well enough but how do we get our brain around it, to put it into practice?
When we ‘go vegan’ - we like to talk about it. Boast about it too. And because we do, we have to make it work. Perhaps we squeeze it a little too hard and it takes on too much importance, all at once. We go in full-bore, because we don’t want our good idea turning sour on us. That would mean going back to square one, and we’d never live that down. And besides, this idea deserves our best shot, so that we’ll understand it better … all the better to reach others with it … all the better to get them to join up and be company for us. Overall, we want this change to work. But all this wanting leads to trouble … we stress about it. And that is characteristic of people starting out being vegan.
But the pressures remain, only they change. For longer term vegans, the food isn’t the problem, people’s opinions of us aren’t so problematic but the stress doesn’t go away, about the slowness of people to come round, to even discuss the subject. The world sleeps on and time is running out. So, for all vegans, young or old, when the scales fall from our eyes and we see what others are not yet seeing, then it’s stressful to see the extent to which the conventional world is reliant on animals and psychologically how fixed people’s attitudes are about animal use. So vegans have to learn to live with a certain level of stress, (the heat is in the kitchen and somehow we have to find a way to stay in the kitchen, heat or no heat).

The decision to 'go vegan'

I start the process of change. I latch onto this good idea and head directly into being vegan, non-violent, animal friendly, green, world transforming, ideal, and everything else indisputable! But I know that once started, I must continue with it or I'll feel like a failure.Definitely I want to leave violence behind me. I want to become a peaceful person. But how do I deal with the "feelings" of violence, woven so tightly into my personal experience and social culture? I’m overwhelmed by the difficulty of dropping it entirely. I aim to be clear of it all; no less than celibate with regard to animal abuse.I take on a vegan diet. I chuck out my leathers, and so on. The idea continues to inspire me. But what about my "feelings"? It may be a good idea in theory, but is it going to make me "feel" better? I have doubts, not about the principle, but about the practice. And that’s where having some sensitivity is a boon and yet also a burden. Great to reach this far, but am I making a rod for my own back? I want to toss this idea of veganism about, let it settle into my life, live with it, let it be known in my social group, without worrying about what others may say … and then I can feel comfortable with it. Then I can handle the inevitable flak.So, I decide to give up eating unethical stuff and that makes me think well of myself. So far so good. I get ready to change. But it’s hard, slow work because I can’t see any wheels turning or any momentum building. I’m impatient, waiting for things to happen. I want everyone to become supportive. And I know that’s unrealistic. I feel I’m wading through treacle, in a state of ever-increasing social isolation. Oh the burden of it all!But the benefits. On the plus side I get a surprise, in finding the change of diet isn’t such a big a problem after all. Well, not to me anyway. This diet switch is surprisingly easy (and that’s what I’d been dreading all along!) With some new products in the cupboard and a few new recipes, I soon come to like the different food and not miss the animal-stuff I once enjoyed eating. But there are other difficulties that need to be mentioned. Unforeseen ones. I worry about my resolve. It might fade before the new lifestyle kicks in. So I’d better go carefully and maybe change incrementally. Trouble is, I probably know a few people who have gone half way and never progressed much beyond that, which is a truly sad position to find yourself in. So, on thinking about it, as I head towards being vegan, I might decide to go in full bore. I’ll use sheer will-power, anything to get to the ‘other side’.Some people are gradual changers and some are more sudden. But whichever way works best foodwise, there are other substantial issues still to face. A newish feeling, how we feel when we begin to notice when something is missing, like losing something we’ve come to rely on. Like the acceptance of people, who now think we’ve gone a bit weird. And our comfort foods, gone! But hey, what's this next one? Seems to have come out of left field … seems as though, along with food and wardrobe, there’s other junk in the cupboard, like our favourite jar we keep full of value judgments. I might have really enjoyed my judgment-making. Perhaps that’s part of why I wanted to go vegan in the first place, to feel better than other people. And now . . . they look a bit rancid. A bit like the nasty poisonous things I've been chucking out.So, if I'm beginning to eat clean, why not start thinking a bit cleaner too? Lessen my reliance on making judgements and enjoying my little superiorities?As vegans we experience change on various levels when we start this product boycott. We face the tension that exists between our deepest passion and our patience. Some of us have to face up to addictions. And some of us have to acknowledge failure too. And whilst, in the beginning, veganism seems like such a good idea, it still needs to be reinforced regularly, to withstand the cold winds of criticism or the drag-down inertia of the conventional world.As an evangelist for veganism I’d want to say “it’s worth it: go vegan. It’s not that hard at all”. But in truth, it’s bloody hard. At least for some of us. But, all the same, certainly worth it.

The grab

Big decisions are made based on ethics, and even though we experiment with them, the ones we choose must represent safety - the safe way to do new things. For instance building relationships, building the very future itself - ethics help us to emphasise what is important. Ethics expand consciousness. And if we use our brains enough (and if our ethics are comprehensive enough) we’ll let a new consciousness influence our everyday thinking process. Humans are fortunate to have that ability to weigh the rights and wrongs of quite complex problems. Other animals are limited in this way. They can’t necessarily ‘get out of the rain’ as we can. But we’ve taken this gift for granted, and used our discriminatory abilities to advantage ourselves, to the detriment of others.
Our sophisticated thought processes have shown us how to grab. It has allowed us to feather our own nests, but we’ve neglected our role as guardians. Our intellect has become detached from our conscience, giving us the green light to go ahead with things we shouldn’t be doing. We’ve wreaked plenty of havoc, and now we need to make amends, by putting ourselves second for a change, materially and spiritually. We owe it to our victims, to show gratitude for what we’ve taken. It’s pay back time. In other words we have to realise that our planet is our sacred responsibility and not something to trash.
However, we are up against the super-spoilers, mega-polluters and profit makers, and amongst them the animal cagers and vivisectors who simply regard ethics as obstacles to profit. And they intend to continue until they are stopped! But recently there’s been a change in public awareness, about the damage we humans have done. Now, to some extent, there is a level of environmental responsibility creeping into our consciousness. The environment gets good press after decades of neglect. But farm animal abuse gets virtually no publicity at all, because it threatens the huge food and clothing supply chains. It’s the purpose of the movement for animal rights to bring our responsibility into sharp focus.

Discuss values

We often hear “It’s just human nature”, implying that it would be futile to try to change certain behaviours, implying that anyone going against the norm (who is in the minority) will inevitably find themselves between a rock and a hard place. But it works both ways. Those who stay with the conventional meat-eating diet are faced with a worse choice, between agreeing with enslaving animals for meat and a guilty conscience for going along with it. This is where confusion hits hardest, for young people especially. They pick up habits by observing their elders but have to wonder why so called ‘ethical’ behaviour is inconsistent at certain times – some values are great, others appear to be so obviously unethical. Kids can’t help disrespecting some of the things adults do because they find themselves questioning what are supposed to be good values.
As adults we prize values. They are the yardstick by which we assess and are assessed. These values are connected with how we want others to see us. It’s likely we do things ethically because we want to feel good about ourselves. We want to win approval, for instance, by developing a good sense of humour and by being kind and generous. This is how we show how rounded we are, and how well we’ve adopted a system of values. We’re judged favourably for them and if we display them consistently we get a good reputation. Adults need to be seen as strong but fair – we want to develop our soft and our hard sides, so we try to be angels-cum-warriors. To achieve this image we have to learn not just the nuts and bolts of acquiring image, but how to genuinely benefit others over a prolonged period. We need rules that are feel-good rules, that we revere, as if passed down through the generations. We rely on proven guidelines that have worked well throughout history and which today still feel right, as if they’ve sprung straight from instinct. But today, with so many confusions and double standards, we have to be much more clear about what ethics we are going to follow. In this modern age instincts aren’t always enough to formulate our ethics and so we need to talk things through with others. We need to discuss them in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of conversation. What we don’t need is for certain topics to be forbidden for discussion. What we don’t need is an unexpected explosion because we’ve raised a tricky subject. Agreeing and disagreeing are all part of the process of assessing values. We don’t so much need to agree or disagree with others’ values as we need to find others willing to talk about them with us.

Energy

On the face of it, dynamic non-violence calls for right-thinking which in turn depends upon our ability to discriminate right from wrong. But this leads us into the moral quagmire of making value judgments. Vegans, for instance, secure their position in the ‘right-thinking’ camp, but they often go on to compare themselves with others who aren’t as ‘right-thinking’ as they should be. Vegans often become judgmental and this can make them look unattractive and frightening.
We’d be on safer ground if we spent less time on good and bad values and concentrated more on good and bad energy. By becoming non-violent, vegans tap into a highly efficient energy production system. Energy used for non-violent activity contrasts with the energy-drain that comes with aggression and violence. Nobody actually advocates violence, it’s more like a fall back position. It scoops us up when we get lost. It appeals to our weak willed side. It’s a temptation not because it is wicked but because it fools us into thinking we can get a quick result. We fail to realise that it sucks energy out of us, and one of the worst energy losses comes when we try to get away with not getting caught out.
“No harm will come if we can get away with it”, which is probably how the obstinate meat eater thinks. They hope they can "get away" with their meat diet without too much damage. But of course the damage shows up later, down the track, when there’s chronic damage done to our system, by which time it seems too late to rescue ourselves. If we’d been less obstinate, listened to our instincts and all the good advice available, we might have eventually become vegan, and thereby not had to take such risks with our lives. Because we are all free-willed individuals, it’s only by our own willingness that we can start to consider making major personal changes that will affect the course of our whole lives and determine the source of our energy supply. Not only should we help ourselves, we should look to others, notably the animal slaves we keep for food. New attitude: Help them, don’t eat them.

People power for peace

In a vegan world, our fundamental nature is consciously changed. If we want to become peaceful people, we must stop using animals because all animals are eventually barbarically killed. If we don’t step away from all this, our attempts at peacemaking will be to no avail. Peacemakers and planet-savers have to start spending their money on cruelty-free products thereby persuading unethical businesses to pursue a more ethical direction. The money in our pockets is the one power we have that can change things, that can help the animals.
I’m intending to get my saw out this week, cut a plywood panel for my bike, fit it under my saddle, with a new slogan to make road users think. I hope they get it. It says:

HELP THEM,
DON’T EAT THEM
(and in smaller letters underneath)
“g o v e g a n”