Light switches and dark rooms

624:

The status quo of animal-use is like a lump of concrete - at present it is set strong. It’s stronger than anyone’s good intentions to change it. Those of us who aren’t involved in the abuse have to deal with it. We have to acknowledge this reluctance-to-change, and the disappointment that comes with it. It shouldn’t put us off. It will always be hard to persuade the carnivores to switch across, and just as difficult with those vegetarians who are rightly proud of the progress they’ve already made, in getting away from eating meat.

If an attitude is locked, it shuts out any chance of progress. If, for instance, you regard animals as little more than things, your attitude won’t let you see them as sentient individuals.

However far we’ve already come, the concrete attitude sits there blocking our way. But it’s useful for us too. It could act as a springboard for re-evaluating where we’re coming from, just in case we’re held back by another sort of attitude block.

            I think vegan reasoning points to the ideal, up ahead; it doesn’t show us how to get there but it explains why we should be moving in that direction, to discover how our reality can make sense of those who aren’t yet aware of it.

Humans are in dark rooms, looking for a light-source, groping about at random instead of discovering what should be obvious (like where the light switch is in this dark room). Once we locate the light switch suddenly everything is clear. We regret the time wasted spent searching in darkness for such an obviously more appealing reality.

On one level we already know that there’s a parallel reality to the one we’re familiar with, and in that ‘reality’ we can see things from the opposite perspective. For me it was a surprise. It made me want to be less obedient to authority and more intent to discover if there was any order behind the chaos.

The following of sequences brings us from one reality to another. I think a vegan diet, for example, is a more intelligent way to go (simply because it’s safe and ethical and more energy-producing.) The same goes for non-violence or compassionate attitude – it’s wiser if only because it makes us feel less ashamed. And that can’t be a bad thing.

Always in front of us is the common aim: to eventually rescue the animals as well as our own souls. In other words, the sooner we can relax about the hugeness of the challenge, the sooner we’ll be able to entertain another reality, consciously. That will be one which satisfies our need to be working for a great cause (whether it be to get people to go vegan or to get people to be non-violent). 

Gratitude

623:

The effects of veganism on one’s whole organism, just by going vegan, is so beneficial to oneself. For my own part, out of that came an urge to pay back – my gratitude made me want to spend up big, in order to promote what I’d discovered. I thought to myself, “Hey, I’ve got an aim! At last it’s clear. I know what to do ... so bring it on”.

            No amount of effort would be enough to pay for so much strength of purpose. Most activists I know are so grateful for what veganism has shown them that they’re constantly energised by it. For my part I know I’d do anything to further this ‘clean-up’ campaign, to ease the animals’ pain and to ease my own conscience. So, that’s why it feels so natural to want to build a strong support base for animal liberation. 

Momentum

622a:

Optimism becomes more of a reality when you think of work as something pleasurable - the whole task of trying to change vast numbers of people’s minds isn’t so much about its ‘impossibility’ as its challenge. We just don’t need the lead-weight mind-set of inevitable failure; we certainly can’t afford to fail before we’ve started.

It helps for us to remember just what has to happen, the sequence of things, and how it was for us when each barrier fell only to expose the next one, which in turn falls to the next, and so on. The struggle makes it all the more satisfying when change happens.

            Here we are, moving from a basically, fairly selfish life (human-centred) to another type of life, with a different perspective, doing something for ourselves as that merges with ‘doing something for others’. ‘Work’ doesn’t have to be boring or driven by reluctant effort if there’s a purpose behind it. Why should the odds against us have to be a problem? As long as we’re going in a consistent direction, day by day, that pulse is enough to hold our interest and prevent us giving up.

Communication and optimism

622:

An optimistic vegan is like a small boat in a rough sea, facing up to impossible odds, everyone wants to sink us, the carnivores for speaking out against them, the vegetarians for undermining their reality and even fellow vegans who just want to lash out at anyone disagreeing with them. As optimists we have to be single minded, and not get upset by blasts of criticisms or ridicule. Our job is to hold out for the port in the distance even though we can’t see it, only knowing it’s there, somewhere.

            How big would the turn-around have to be, for most people to swing our way? The challenge of that keeps us on our toes. But unless we keep optimistic we’re merely fighting a rear-guard action. Our optimism is our forward momentum, based on the strength of this one single idea and the practice we get from standing up to detractors.

            Both omnivores and some within the Animal Rights Movement refuse to see anything much changing for the better. Consequently they try to squash optimism, saying how impossible our task is, and how humans won’t ever change. They haven’t taken into account that people wise up to things when too many ‘stabilities’ collapse (as animal food is linked with animal cruelty and ill health) and things have to be re-thought.

People do change. Just look at the many vegetarians there are today after a mere thirty or forty years, where before that there were practically none. And now there are those who are practising vegans, who are willing to speak up about animal issues, who know it’s dangerously counter-productive to be defeatist. In Animal Rights, since we’re at such an early stage of consciousness-change, our work shouldn’t be weakened by those who talk about ‘the pointlessness of it all’. Somehow each of us has to find a way of getting over that, in order to maintain the momentum of change. 

Rocky road

621:

Convincing people of the link between food and the slavery of animals should be dead simple. But it isn’t. We are seen as the ‘spoilers’, for trying to do just that. But so what? We know it might seem that way when we open our mouths, trying to alter attitudes. But we know our intentions are good - the very opposite of spoiling people’s eating pleasures. It just doesn’t seem that way to the onlooker.

            Attitude colours everything we think about. Pleasure pushes its way to the front so, for omnivores, eating comes before thinking; their insistence on pleasure delays personal ethical development. Vegans can only clear the path and wait. Our insisting that a lot of what’s eaten is ethically wrong is simply removing heavy rocks from a path to make travelling on it smoother, and the bigger the rock the more useful vegans are for trying to remove it.

            Learning how to lift these attitudinal rocks is what vegans do; we pick up rocks wherever we find them and ultimately that’s the best training we can get, for communicating this awkward subject.

Our aims and the license to speak about them

620:

Our common aim is profound enough to draw energy from. Our aim is reached by eating plant-based foods and seeing the connections between the food we boycott and the treatment of ‘food’ animals. This is why we decide to become vegan in the first place, to protect certain values connected with humanity; humans are losing their grip on ethical values in relation to their food and what is condoned, in respect of the way animals are being treated. The animal-eaters are talking themselves into becoming monsters, and vegans are trying to talk them out of it. We see a role here for talking about animal issues. As talking-vegans, we need to know how to talk effectively.

The job of public-addressing involves outlining the sequences we go through in the waking-up process. First our attention is caught by seeing how cruelty and animal products go together; everyone should be aware, by now, of the worst abuses of chickens in cages and pigs in sow stalls. Then we start to see how ‘clean’ food leads to a clearing of our view of world events - if people were vegan, animals would be spared, our health improved, world starvation a thing of the past and the threat of global warming massively reduced. The sequence of one thing leading to the next, from food to good nutrition to plentiful food supply to cleaner farming impact on the environment, shows how the world could benefit from simple plant based food regimes. The omnivore needs to be helped to see these sequences, but for that to happen vegan advocates must speak with  permission. If it’s not forthcoming then that’s of central importance. And we have to ask why people are so reluctant to talk or listen to matters concerning Animal Rights. Until we make progress on permission we make no progress at all. 

What’s going on here?

619:

Vegans can be so irritating, especially when they invade public space. Of course, they don’t have to be, they can be inspirational.

            There’s a difference between two types of vegan - those who don’t proselytise and those who do; some vegans speak out in public and are sometimes pushy and off-putting, some vegans don’t speak out and seem to be afraid of confronting people. Outspoken vegans do invaluable work, and quiet vegans do too, by setting a fine example in silence. I think both types are valid, but they’re not mutually exclusive. They can coexist in the one person. There are those who don’t ear bash their friends every time they see them but never miss an opportunity to speak out when appropriate, when invited.

If that part of us, which chooses to go into the public arena, is going to become stronger it must be able to deal with opposition, including those who just ignore us. We have to get used to the swagger of the vast majority; they are almost over confident because of that. So, we press on; as advocating vegans we can turn the obstinate public mind simply by enjoying the ‘game of reaching into the public ear’ and not getting huffy when rejected.

But this approach is never nonintrusive, but it’s a balance to stimulate discussion. We can take a few blows to the head, a few insults and jokes at our expense, just so long as we start discussing that most touchy of all subjects, animal issues.

As soon as we beg the public’s indulgence, beg them to listen, we lose them. And there again, as soon as we dispense with any pretence of getting permission, as soon as we challenge them to ‘bring-it-on’, or if we force them to listen, they run. And again we’ve lost them.

So, whereto from here? Humour works sometimes but it gives the impression that this is a light-hearted subject, which it’s not. I suppose one of our main problems is that, already, we have a bit of a reputation; we’re the newest evangelist on the block. They can almost smell us coming from a distance. As soon as I open my mouth they ask themselves - what’s going on here? Is he trying to convert me?