Becoming responsible for change

To choose to do something responsible we need a certain generosity of spirit. If we feel passionate enough, then our arguments about the no-use-animal principle will take us beyond just improving their welfare. We’ll begin to see them altogether differently, not as commodities but as irreplaceable individuals who need our help. If animals are to be released from slavery, it will only come about because we’ve been thinking about them and fixing things up for them on a permanent basis. They initially need to be released into a protected environment where they’re no longer required to reproduce for human profit.
But how are free-willed, autonomous people ever going to be convinced of this principle? It’s radical, inconvenient and often advocated by righteous sounding people. To make the change of attitude seem attractive to them, advocates need to look carefully at how they communicate their message. First up, we need to stop haranguing people into agreement. Even if they begin to agree with us, they’ll always slip back to old habits after we’ve left, unless we’ve been able to convince them to make a permanent step forward. Becoming vegan is one big step, not merely in changing from a traditional diet to a plant-based one, but from a position of self-interest to altruism.
Out of respect for the difficulties of making such a change, we need to be honest and not hold back on the many personal and practical implications of such an attitude change. Swapping new habits for old starts with food because that’s the first thing on the mind of anyone considering this change. But we also need to talk about boycott and withdrawing support from a whole destructive society-based system. Stepping aside from the norm in order to help establish another normality.

Getting the ball rolling

Today, in a world run largely by self-seekers, we need more responsible people who see the need for repair, who can take on leadership roles. People who won’t give up on the job.
Repair was never going to be easy. On the one hand our destructive habits and violent attitudes are obvious and deeply entrenched. On the other hand, repair faces no particular obstacles until we try to put theory into practice. Repairs never look very inviting. They seem like hard work and any repairs we make won’t at first be appreciated. They need to be established in our private lives first, then communicated to others. Once taken up as new habits by the majority, legislation occurs. So, if we are going to start the ball rolling on repair, we need good motivation to keep us on track. If we can approach repair the right way, it will not only be effective but become the most attractive thing we could be doing for ourselves.
We’ve only recently become aware of the threat of climate change; but to some extent it is being addressed. We are slowly becoming environmentally aware. Another damage, the spending of trillions of dollars on weapons of war, is getting publicity. The huge number of children dying from malnutrition, is being exposed. These problems are hopefully being addressed and will influence the way responsible voters vote and decent governments act.
But there is another major level of damage that is still largely ignored - The enslavement of non-human animals by humans. It gets little publicity and never appears on the list of ‘greatest threats to civilisation’ because governments consider the topic "not in the interests of voters" and will not address it. Therefore few people have seen the damage it is doing. A different way of spending our money combined with a change in our eating habits will alleviate this particular damage. As soon as we stop participating in the mass killing of animals we open a new front of awareness. It has to start with individuals doing what they think is the right thing, then other individuals will follow and the ball will start rolling. At first, repair won’t be popular because of the restrictions it seems to lay on one’s lifestyle. Thus only the courageous will start the ball rolling. We can’t expect governments to spring up overnight and act on such an unpopular topic, because to ban the killing of animals would be political suicide for any government. Any major breakthrough has to start at the grass roots level. Individually we are each at the grass roots level.

Enjoying the process of change

With a bit more humility we would admit to following fashions and doing what others do … and to being a bit mindless about taking responsibility for our actions. Wouldn’t it be great if more people took the lead and addressed the uglier aspects of our lifestyle and admitted the need to repair them. But however noble our repairs are, unless we find ways to enjoy the repair process itself, it’s likely we won’t keep up the momentum. It will look too much like hard work, and we won’t have enough motivation to make it happen.
By connecting personal fulfilment with practical repair work, we can make changes less painful and actually enjoy the work of it all. By deciding to become vegetarian, no longer using meat and products taken from animals’ bodies, we can improve our health and energy, but the big bonus is that we help animals get off death row. To achieve that, to be even the tiniest part of the eventual liberation of animals, this should be enough to make whatever we are doing satisfying. When we do get serious about repair there are two things happening at the same time - we are doing something big for ourselves and we’re doing something even bigger for the greater good (which of course includes saving animals). It happens mainly by way of self-discipline and then, later, by the enjoyment of personal achievement. It starts out as a selfless establishing of habit changes, then, feeling the reward of our efforts, selfless becomes self benefitting. With this comes a realisation that what we want for others is what we want for ourselves. The altruism of it is neither me-centred nor you-centred, just a matter of striking a balance between common interests. Altruism serving today’s big problems.

The power of one idea

Vegan principle, simply stated, is that vegans don’t use animals. We avoid thousands of products which most others use without thinking and which most people from childhood are accustomed to using. Vegans avoid, boycott, do-without or replace, and it’s not always easy to do that, but it’s as nothing compared to the hardship animals face - the suffering forced upon them makes any difficulties we might have pale into insignificance. Whatever we encounter, it’s hardly worth a mention when put up against the urgent need for us to change our eating patterns. It’s really the only idea that can solve the mess we’ve created in the breakdown of our relations with animals. We can only overcome the damage we’ve caused by accepting the "idea of repair".
Everything the human race has so far achieved has grown out of "ideas". They occur to us, explode in our imagination and we develop and implemented them to see if they will work. Sometimes they really do work and we benefit from them always. Many of us believe that living on plant-based foods is one such timeless idea. But sometimes ideas seem to work only for a time and then end up doing more harm than good. Like the internal combustion engine, which was such an asset at first but, a century down the track, is now heavily contributing to the death of our planet.
But good or bad, ideas that have power are capable of taking over old systems - we get enthusiastic about them but if we don’t examine them deeply we let them get out of control, which in turn makes us feel afraid and pessimistic. Perhaps that’s what happened with the idea that we could ‘use’ animals. It seemed like a good idea at the time: corral them, fatten them then kill them. Until, with our increasing ill health, our addiction to animal products became scary. A seemingly good idea turned sour. It has begun to make our future look grim. We are, as a species, in the grip of a simple addiction which is bringing us down. As individuals we are still cranking up the machine by our own daily habits, too obstinate to change. Or are we now too impotent to change? Certainly the idea of radically altering our food regime reminds us that we don’t want to make our living conditions any more uncomfortable than they already are. We know we’re being selfish here (addicts are always selfish!) but we prefer to maintain our present lifestyle and wait for others to do the changing first … after which we intend to follow suit! (Addicts are plagued by their own cowardice too!). We follow fashions, we don’t lead them, and that has become a dangerous habit in itself. Surely the only way out of all this is to drop the habit, which drops the addiction, which stops the damage. It’s up to each of us to set our own example and initiate the ‘idea’ that vegan principles are a perfect way to guide our choices.

Going-vegan – it’s almost like falling in love

This is where the idea of the "complete repair" comes in. Logically, if the world were to stop eating and farming animals, many of our major problems would disappear. On a personal level, where it must begin, there is a chance to make a break with an old set of habits and take an essential first step in repair by "going-veg". By withdrawing our support for the animal industries and freeing ourselves from the addictive grip of their products, we do a repair job on ourselves and help liberate the animals at the same time. And since this boycott and consequent lifestyle-change flies in the face of traditional social behaviour, this is a badge we can wear proudly. It makes us more attractive to ourselves and provides the motivation we need, to go forward and make much needed repairs contributing to the big three: human starvation, animal exploitation and environmental destruction.
But this switching of habit is no light matter. If we give up eating meat one day, the next day we’ll be questioning the whole ethical basis of animal farming and nutrition! So what starts out as just a change of diet, now opens up some big-time changes of attitude. Many people see the advantages of a plant based diet but they’re fearful of taking the first step. The idea is exciting in theory but in practice the changes look too scary. And this is encouraged by a certain obfuscation on the part of our society, in the way it refers to the animals we eat. The altruism gene in nearly all of us has been put to sleep when it comes to thinking about ‘agricultural stock’. We have all been carefully groomed to think euphemistically. The terms ‘poultry’, ‘porkers’ and ‘cattle’ are far enough removed from the animals’ true names to put them into a special category, as if designed specifically as a human food species. Any altruistic feeling we might have for the animals themselves feels somehow awkward when the collective term is used. It diverts our concern away from the individuality of each animal.
If we do see through this cynical downgrading of farmed animals we might consider the move to veganism. And it’s only then that we must be ready to surprise ourselves, by considering the non-pursuit of self-interest and the embracing of an altruistic, compassionate concern. That’s when we allow ourselves to be taken over by the passion of it. Going vegan is almost like falling in love! The big thrill comes in the idea itself - in this case "to not make use of animals". It’s a two-way bonus of liberating animals and strengthening ourselves at the same time.
We need courage and commitment to carry it through, but by carrying it through we develop the very courage and commitment we need. Once we establish this direction, when the logic falls into place, we see how this habit-change contributes so neatly to the future of the planet and contributes to our own personal development as well. In a nutshell everything is transformed by the application of the no-touch-animals principle.

Addiction

Let us say that millions of people realise what they do when they eat animals and yet have decided to continue. Why don’t they stop?. Perhaps because in our society there is no strong voice, or at least no media promoted voice, to spell out unmistakably what is happening to the animals we eat. IT’S A COMPREHENSIVE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE. So the obvious question is why are we allowing such a vast assault on animals to take place right under our noses and not looking into it? Most people will probably think that because animal foods are essential to ensure good nutrition that we can’t address their killing without killing ourselves. But as soon as the untruth of this is exposed, as soon as it is accepted that animal foods are the chief destroyers of health, then there’s really nowhere else to retreat to. And we have to accept that humans kill all these animals and eat them mainly to titillate tastebuds and for the convenience of it being so available. But an even more powerful reason might be that we think we will experience painful withdrawals if we stop eating it. We get hooked on animal products and all the many items containing them. The many different meals and snacks, comprising meats, cheeses, eggs and animal fats continue to be eaten because we don’t think we have enough willpower to avoid using them. Neither logic nor ill health, guilty conscience, environmental impact of animal farming or the chance to feed a new plant diet to the starving millions, will convince us to stop. There isn’t enough altruism to fuel such an unselfish concern for the food animals. We act like junkies who are knowingly ruled by a self destructive habit.

Manipulating the conscience

Despite the fact our favourite foods give us pleasure, they should also weigh heavily on our conscience, alongside other things we do that do damage. We waste and pollute and perhaps we feel guilty but how much guilt can a person handle? All the things we got used to, which are now known to be damaging. We adjust our lifestyle and try to be greener or kinder or thriftier. We’ve tuned our conscience into the political correctness of the day. And now we’re all ‘signed up’ we can’t spare any more room for improvement. There’s nowhere in our conscience for animals! For many of us we create a sort of numbness when we think of animals suffering, and we try to pretend that none of it matters. But it obviously does. Most particularly to the animals themselves. Our eating habits have denied them a life. They are kept alive only to be eaten or to have their body products eaten or worn. They live in a state of perpetual terror and die the most ugly death anyone could imagine. We may say it is “outrageous” but we still allow it to happen.
By continuing to spend our money on animal products, we participate in the whole process. We might try to ignore it so we can relax at our table and eat what’s on our plate, but we are ruled by our habits - minds shut, mouths open. We’ve been manipulated and believe it is all too difficult to break out of.

Changing our personal habits

Anyone who wants to do something about the way we treat food-animals, is going to have to ignore what they’ve previously been taught about eating habits. They’ll retrain tastebuds, refuse advice from authorities with vested interests, and turn to those who’ve already gone vegan and remain in good health.
By not sponsoring the use of animals in the food and clothing industries we relieve ourselves of the guilt of the whole animal issue, which sits like a lead weight on the collective conscience. What we do to animals makes us feel like monsters. Any sensitive and well informed person must feel ashamed of the part we play and the cruel practices we condone. The way animals are slaughtered, the imprisonment of hens in tiny cages, the theft of newborn calves from dairy cows, the sow stall, the mutilations of cattle. The list of horrors goes on and on and each one reflects on the human consumer who supports abuse by buying animal produce. It is a sick habit, but perhaps we won’t talk about it because it throws up too many problems involving making too many changes, more than we think we are capable of. But there are, nevertheless, many people doing just that, who have established these changes in their lives and are now helping others to understand and carry out similar lifestyle and attitude changes.
They are reacting positively to this need to alter attitudes to animals. They want to show that humans are capable of the self discipline and good intention needed to change daily habits. That's what vegans are doing.

Getting the ball rolling:

Today, in a world run largely by self-seekers, we need more responsible people who see the need for repair, who can take on leadership roles. People who won’t give up on the job.
Repair was never going to be easy. On the one hand our destructive habits and violent attitudes are obvious and deeply entrenched. On the other hand, repair faces no particular obstacles until we try to put theory into practice. Repairs never look very inviting. They seem like hard work and any repairs we make won’t at first be appreciated. They need to be established in our private lives first, then communicated to others. Once taken up as new habits by the majority, legislation occurs. So, if we are going to start the ball rolling on repair, we need good motivation to keep us on track. If we can approach repair the right way, it will not only be effective but become the most attractive thing we could be doing for ourselves.
We’ve only recently become aware of the threat of climate change; but to some extent it is being addressed. We are slowly becoming environmentally aware. Another damage, the spending of trillions of dollars on weapons of war, is getting publicity. The huge number of children dying from malnutrition, is being exposed. These problems are hopefully being addressed and will influence the way responsible voters vote and decent governments act.
But there is another major level of damage that is still largely ignored - The enslavement of non-human animals by humans. It gets little publicity and never appears on the list of ‘greatest threats to civilisation’ because governments consider the topic "not in the interests of voters" and will not address it. Therefore few people have seen the damage it is doing. A different way of spending our money combined with a change in our eating habits will alleviate this particular damage. As soon as we stop participating in the mass killing of animals we open a new front of awareness. It has to start with individuals doing what they think is the right thing, then other individuals will follow and the ball will start rolling. At first, repair won’t be popular because of the restrictions it seems to lay on one’s lifestyle. Thus only the courageous will start the ball rolling. We can’t expect governments to spring up overnight and act on such an unpopular topic, because to ban the killing of animals would be political suicide for any government. Any major breakthrough has to start at the grass roots level. Individually we are each at the grass roots level.

It’s not about ‘me’

Assuming we do have a touch of faith (in the power of change) we should seize every opportunity to press for the changes we want to see. We can’t expect our leaders to lead us. It’s up to us, ordinary people, to repair things wherever we can. We shouldn’t doubt our own power to make a difference, and anyway the changes we might make aren’t always about ‘me’. Our chief difficulty isn’t in not knowing what to do; but in not daring to do it! When we think things through we realise that change is at least twice as hard as we first realise, if only because it’s about the interests of others as well as ourselves. There’s an altruistic element in most of the changes we need to make, if we want our changes to impact on others. Ideally we want our altruism to be effective. We want to be both altruistic and effective but they seem to be opposed. So how can we bring them together? How do we make altruism effective and effectiveness altruistic? Perhaps the answer lies in the example we set as an individual, against all odds. As we let personal example define who we are (and show how undaunted we can be) we help bring about the collective ‘good example’ that encourages others to follow. Surely this is the way to set up a self-perpetuating impulse throughout our society. By sowing seeds and encouraging this sort of altruistic growth, people-powered change inevitably happens.

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Grasping the nettle

It’s not as if we don’t realise the connections between our own actions and eventual consequences, but we stand transfixed like a rabbit in the car’s headlights. We know we are going to have to change (should change) but we’re immobilised by the expectations of family, friends and society. There’s pressure to accept things the way they are and to succeed within the framework of today’s standards. And then there’s our own belief that whatever we try to do we can’t alter the course of events anyway - our institutions and attitudes are too set in concrete. And there are so many serious things going wrong. We live in a world where millions of children die needlessly and millions of animals are killed shamelessly. And we continue on about our daily business as if nothing bad is happening. It’s almost as if we dare not think about the psychological impact this could be having on us. Our leaders show no leadership either. They’re probably as nonplussed as we are.
So, it comes down to two things: one - the need to believe in our own power to change our attitudes and two - that our own changes can set off a chain reaction. It just depends on believing in these two propositions, and grasping the nettle, by first becoming vegan and then going on from there.

The collective ‘we’

The human capacity to act destructively makes the most dangerous on the planet and we, as individuals, are the product of what we have already condoned. We are all part of the collective impact. And now, if we want to step away from what we’ve become, we might find it hard, because our common behaviour binds us together with friends, family and colleagues. If we step away from them we may find our self in no-man’s land, where whatever we do is futile. The fear is that there may be nothing we can do to change things. It’s as if we are part of something so big and so fast moving, that it continually overtakes any effort any individual makes to try to stop it. It’s as if we have to stand by and watch. We can either participate or stand aside, but the result will be the same … or so it seems.
The collective ‘we’ trashes the environment, and ‘we’ proceed, like an unstoppable juggernaut, towards the ultimate calamity of climate change and an unliveable planet. Our collective ethical standards couldn’t be lower. We damage the physical planet and hurt the most sensitive beings on it, by ruining the habitat of wildlife and letting our animal farms become modern day death camps! We’ve let our bodies go haywire too, by losing control of our health on rich foods and over indulgent lifestyles. We continue to over-consume goods and squander resources, and we see millions of kids dying for want of food right next door to our own kids who have too much and suffer from obesity. We in the West have the capacity to stop this happening and yet we are letting it happen. And ‘we’ act as one.
It’s time to separate from the collective ‘we’, distinguish between our personal selves and our group-selves. Otherwise the shame of not standing up for what is right will haunt us for the rest of our lives and disable those who follow us. They need to know from us that we did everything we could to stop the rot and to speed up the transformation of our species into a less dangerous more altruistic type.

Transforming

There are many reasons for NOT being vegan but they all involve stagnation and an acceptance of a lot of ugly things. If we want to take a bold step out of all this there’s no bolder step than becoming vegan. We can fast track change as vegans, and step right into a new, less shameful world. But it means we have to take on being different.
Humans have some serious weaknesses, the chief being a need to be accepted (as normal) by others. That leads us into doing what others do, without questioning too much of anything. If we do ask questions (or rather acknowledge what we already know) we risk stepping out in front of others. And when we do that it behoves us to show how things should be done … which excludes us from the pack, and there’s a chance others may not follow. The big fear is being left out in the cold.
But humans have serious strengths too, like the ability to see beyond the ‘normal’ and be courageous enough to act not only for our own personal good but for everyone’s benefit. We imagine how things could be and then mould our behaviour accordingly. It’s just a matter of grasping the nettle, and not being intimidated by the need to be normal or the urge to be selfish.

What stops us going vegan?

(700 words)
Taking on a vegan lifestyle (avoiding animal products) looks like a restriction of convenience. Most people have never had to consider restricting themselves, especially to things they’ve taken for granted all their lives. Nor have they ever needed to consider taking veganism seriously.
So for vegans, we have to weigh up the specific difficulties we’re facing, one by one in order to find out what will get people to consider the animal problem and get them listening to vegan argument. We firstly need to look at every conceivable reason why someone would persuade themselves NOT to go vegan. We have to appreciate how important it is for most people to preserve their freedom of choice of food. We have to reckon with how people approach the idea of going on a diet, taking on a meal program and giving up favourite snacks, treats and indulgencies. Then there’s cuisine and what that means to people; they might like French cuisine or be fond of Chinese or Indian foods, and not like the idea of a favourite cuisine being confined to plant-based foods. But it isn’t just the food we eat but the clothing we wear, and (for the fashion conscious who don’t have much choice of footwear outside the leather range) the shoes we wear. And there’s the zoo visit, especially when children want to see their favourite animals. And explaining to kids why they can’t go to see an animal circus when it comes to town. For teenagers it’s difficult, when they’re in need of a job and find work selling hamburgers at McDonalds when there’s no other work around. You may want to train as a chef in a restaurant, but you’ll inevitably need to cook with animal body parts since virtually every popular dish uses them. For a vegan that career path is out of the question along with just about every career associated with preparing food. And socially vegans are up against it all the time. When we’re invited to dinner or a wedding or any social bash, at some stage the food table confronts us and we either don’t eat or ask for something ‘special’ to be made, which is an irritation to those providing the food. At Christmas we’re given a woollen jumper or there’s a woollen blanket on the bed we share with someone. What do we do about that? What do we say when invited to sit on a leather lounge? How far do we take it? A lover gives you a kiss, and it tastes! Someone you share a kitchen with at home who cooks meat and it makes us feel sick, or they keep things in the fridge which you see every time you open it. Then there are meat scraps in the waste bin and they attract flies in warm weather. You eat your food alongside others who eat things that disgust you, or they want to eat items you feel obliged to cook for them. If you are single and out there looking for a partner, how many suitable vegans are there to choose from? At work you stand out in obvious ways, and you’re the butt of jokes. For children at school there’s nothing in the canteen to buy since vegetarian (let alone vegan) foods don’t sell well enough for canteen fund-raising purposes. What if you join a peace movement dedicated to non-violence and you go to their fund raising sausage sizzle and feel you must try to expand their horizons, in reference to the food they eat. See how far that gets you. There are probably no takers because environmentalists have got enough issues to handle, concerning forests and pollution and global warming, and they can’t cope with extra issues concerning animal farming. Maybe you would like to be involved in a charity which feeds starving children and they donate milk and meat products, or they provide live animals to encourage animal farming. To them they are doing a great job of providing much needed food, and if you don’t approve you’re accused of wanting the kids to starve. Just some of the problems facing us when we go vegan.

Quality versus the ‘v’ word

Meat is symbolic of rich living (despite the fact that most people in the West can afford to buy it). This is the problem - meat, rich animal foods, even luxury leather shoes, seem to be regarded as ‘quality goods’. They are attractive to our ‘trained’ tastebuds and expensive enough to be associated with good living. They appeal to those who “appreciate the good things in life”. In contrast vegans seem to make people feel guilty for wanting them, consequently people dislike vegans and the sort of foods they recommend.
As a part of the ‘vast majority’ most people do what most others do. If they think about it at all they have lots of reasons why they wouldn’t take up veganism. So I thought I should list the main reasons why people do NOT go vegan, and then weigh the list against a non-violent plan for our future. The one excludes the other.
So, what stops us becoming vegan? Perhaps things we associate with pleasure, but which we also link to our need for safety and social acceptance. People may realise what they eat, wear, use and do are poor substitutes for something better, but they can’t face losing what they know. The risk is too great. Whilst vegans have taken the plunge in many ways, by the food and clothing they buy, they may be healthier and more aware of animals but still far from leading a truly non-violent life. But once vegan there’s a chance we can open up the possibilities of non-violence and start to interest others in considering what non-violence means. The enthusiastic meat eater can’t possibly take non-violence seriously.
Because most people are so deeply involved with the animal trade, the biggest hurdle they have is getting daily food habits and speciesist attitudes towards animals changed. So it’s important to look at the reasoning behind why we remain speciesist and what stops us becoming vegan? In tomorrow’s blog I’ll make a long list of those things we like to do at the expense of animals, which give us reasons for keeping the ‘v’ word out of our vocabulary.

Good intentioned resolve

Being offended by vegans (who are up front about their diets) is a favourite defence of some omnivores, who use it as justification for ‘not listening’. But some are listening and taking what we say seriously. They may be deciding to alter their food-buying policy. But for what reason? Do they entertain the idea of change because we’ve nudged them into it, or is it an awakening of compassion? Or political correctness? Or maybe guilt and wanting to win approval by announcing an intention to do the right thing?
Private thoughts lead to intentions and experiments, not only to test ideas but to test our resolve, to see if we can marry our initial enthusiasm with real action. Becoming vegan is like that, a long road of giving up favourite things and eventually giving up the MOST favourite things.
Intentions are interesting, we all have the best of them and they help us to believe in ourself. We all know how a failed one comes about - like sneaking a sly hamburger when no one is watching, or having a smoke behind the bicycle sheds when we’re kids. Our backsliding – what is it? Could it be weakness or could it be rebellion? There is after all temptation involved and the sweet taste of ‘stolen fruit’. There may elements of all this in continuing to eat meat. We might not be sure if not giving it up is weakness or a refusal to give in to the passive side of our self.

Vegan police

Whenever we take over a conversation to state our case for veganism or animal rights we seem like the moral police force, at least that’s how it looks to people who consider what they do, eat or wear to be quite okay. In their minds there’s no obvious damage being done (!!) when they’re only doing what others do … and which is anyway legal to do. Vegans may want to win points for being brave and forthright but our image precedes us, and our behaviour is always being measured against that.
If we go around opening fridge doors and disapproving of what we find inside, we’re no better than peeping toms. We are stepping over the line, or more importantly we are showing a fundamental misunderstanding of people’s freedom-of-choice: and some of the ‘free-choosers’ will understandably react badly. Perhaps they’d be too polite to object to our face but later, privately, they might get quite upset about it. And that’s the feeling associated with the pushy vegan activist, who tries to barge their way into people’s private lives.

Free-will

Growing up develops our reasons and justifications for what we do but we live in a world that is already set up, and there’s disillusionment about aspects of that world. We seem locked into the existing system as well as the patterns we’ve carried across into adulthood from our younger years. Maybe we want to make changes without too much personal loss. One of the most precious things we have is our free will and we protect it. As we become adults we get closer and closer to being able to exercise it. We start to earn serious money which enables us to enjoy all the adult privileges. We can now drive so we can go out and buy a car (if we have the money), we’re old enough to get involved in politics because we have a vote, we go to bed late, use mind altering substances, eat what we like, dress how we like, etc. From having been locked in childhood, now, with free will, we have our get-out-of-jail-free card. There are temptations galore when we come of age. We can determine things our own way. But on a grander scale we discover that we can’t change the world. There’s a mixture of elation and frustration. The real sea change we intend comes at a cost and many of us are unwilling to pay. However, vegans suggest the price is small and the transformation great for those with enough imagination to use their free will constructively. Unfortunately free-will can hold us back and vegans know all too well that they are up against adults who use free will to maintain the only pleasures they know.
Free willed adults can eat what they want to eat and don’t have to listen to either their mothers or vegans. If we as vegans try to push our views too hard we’ll fail. We already have a reputation for telling others what to do and we fail because we don’t take into account the free-will of people. Omnivores are determined to protect their ‘right-to-choose’, whilst vegans are determined to convince everyone they should be acting for the ‘greater good’ and not out of self interest.
But we have no special dispensation to put pressure on people to change diets, clothes, cosmetics, etc. and we have no right to try. But more importantly we have no chance of succeeding when we don’t take into account people’s freedom to act in any (legal) way they want to.

Investigating the reasons

Vegan’s have rules concerning animals and eating habits but many don’t fully apply it to their relations with each other. We still don’t observe the rule of comprehensive non-violence - some vegans are not forgiving of those who hurt animals … but that of course includes almost the whole of the human race. Moral judgement-making is a slippery slope because it means we have to be disapproving of almost everybody - because every person is heavily involved in animal crimes simply by eating animal product. And because they spend their money on it they lend financial support to the people who directly attack animals. So the question is, are we as vegans capable of broadening our harmlessness to living and thinking without aggression and include non-judgementalism in our vegan principles? If vegans do make value judgements about certain human behaviour it often involves personal dislike, along the lines of “if you are not with us, you’re against us” or “non-vegans are our enemies”, etc. If we, as vegans, are trying to set the standard of non-violence, we have to be that much more generous with our judgements, not by acting as Polly Annas but by looking for the best in people, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, without okaying what they actually do. I don’t want to give the impression that we should condone lower standards of behaviour but we must separate the deed from the person. We are teachers not preachers. Vegans should investigate what makes people tick. We need to keep asking the same question - why aren’t they concerned about ‘the animal problem’ and why aren’t people impatient to become vegan? We need to put our fellow humans under the magnifying glass, to see why they don't protest the routine murdering of animals, and in fact why they enthusiastically support it.

Home rules

If killing animals to eat them is condoned by the majority, then as vegans we need to step away from all that. And be upfront about it in as much as we don’t try to hide our boycott. In our own mind we know that we live in society but are, in some important ways, not part of it – because we don’t condone violence and specifically violently extracted foods and commodities. In that way it makes us very different to almost all other people. Our decisions are coloured differently in so many ways, not just with food and clothing but in the very way we see our world – we don’t take on the role of dominator but that of equal participator with other species.
The way that we’re particularly different though is that we have rules about food. Anyone who is part of a particular discipline, whether it be in sport, religion, academic study or personal relationships, has self-imposed rules. We devise and adopt them not just to make our life more difficult but because they provide a structure which is generally beneficial. So those who practice a ‘discipline’ (as it may be called) are very familiar with their own rules.
Take the Quakers. They avoid war and don’t let themselves be conscripted. They believe disagreements can be best handled by dialogue rather than confrontation. For many years in the eighteenth century in Pennsylvania, they maintained friendly relations with the indigenous Americans and governed a whole state on the basis of non-violence. Their government eventually collapsed because the use of violence and force was more popular for solving problems, but maybe the Quakers were doomed by their own inconsistency – they hadn’t embraced the idea of being non-violent towards animals since they still killed and ate them. But they still represent today a precept of acting non-violently and perhaps also non-judgementally, and we can all appreciate the value of that. I’d like to see them become vegan because of the valuable groundwork they’ve done towards the idea of regarding all humans as being on an equal footing.
Vegans and Quakers each offer an important principle to the world. One discipline, from one group, could benefit the other group in a sort of principle-exchange.

Strategy

Animal Rights needs a communication upgrade! As vegans we have our own weaknesses and they need to be addressed as much as the general public needs to address theirs, if only to keep our judgementalism in check. But speaking of the animal-eating masses, their habit of condoning the killing and eating of animals is a weakness and that’s all it is. Vegans need to be able to show it for what it is, but ONLY that. No rancour, no disrespect and no value judgements. We don’t win long term commitment by inducing guilt or fear in people. Only by showing we respect them and are interested in their welfare can we keep them on side. Apart from wanting to be warm with people, it is to our strategic advantage to help.
Let’s say we are together, you and I. If you look at my face, you’ll pick up all the essentials as to how I’m feeling – either I’m relating to you non-judgementally (I’ll be giving off signals that I like you or accept you) or I’m being judgemental (signalling disapproval or mistrust). I may not want to be judgemental but that will be overridden by my wanting to show off my high standards. I may be prepared to risk our relationship for the sake of letting you know that I disapprove of something you do. I’ll gamble on you finding my honesty of value and that I’m not trying to deceive you about how I feel.
If I’m being judgemental, it is all about values, mine and yours. It’s about me needing to establish my credentials, showing I have something to say and establishing my right to say it. If I express a moral judgement (aimed at you) you may take offence. It isn’t the same as a judgement that fire is hot. That’s evidence-based, self evident. But when I assess your values, that’s a subjective statement about my values being better than yours. My judging may not necessarily be fair or carefully researched, but because I feel it to be right, I’m impelled to make my position clear, and relate it to yours. I may think the shock of what I say will ‘wake you up’, rather as if you insult me and I punch you in the face before I’ve thought it through. It’s a powerful moment. My judgement is quick, clear and almost primeval. I dislike what you do, I am showing it before I’ve given myself time to make more considered response and therefore a less honest one.
We might often act like this, automatically. Each day we make decisions without taking the trouble to consider more carefully. Perhaps that’s because we don’t have enough time or patience. We think and act almost simultaneously, instinctively liking or disliking. When it comes to straight talking it might not be such a bad thing, if our friends come to know we are as we speak. But if we haven’t thought carefully about it we may use the shock and attack approach and not care about their feelings or setting off a whole train of insensitivity which adds up to being a strategic mistake. So where does that leave us? Perhaps strategically needing to be very careful about straying into the mine field of value judgements.

BEing non-judgemental

When we’re talking animal rights we use words, and it’s impossible not to expose our inner feelings when we speak. Try as we might we can’t take the judgement out of our voice, if it’s already in our mind. Our words can sound benign, but if we harbour any negative personal feeling it will show in the tone of our voice, and be picked up. Anyone thinking any sort of judgement about someone’s moral values can be smelt from a distance, and be regarded as hostile. “Avoid, avoid”. So, for vegans talking animal rights, it’s almost impossible for us to win the hearts of people if we are in judgement of them.
If we wear the badge of the ‘animal liberationist’, owing to our general reputation for proselytising, we’re immediately recognised. So somehow we need to win people over in order to get them to stay with us long enough to listen to us. How do we do that? I would suggest by proving to them, first and foremost, that we aren’t judgemental, and if necessary say so. To do that we first have to BE non-judgemental, truly so. We must be convinced of the futility of making moral judgements, whether it’s about the abuse of animals or about anything we consider wrong. Instead we need to see it in much the same way a doctor sees a disease, without rancour or disrespect but simply as a fault in the system, which needs help and hopefully correction. A doctor will look for a remedy to counter the destructive element, and so should we.
They say there’s cancer in everyone’s body and we have to stay healthy and keep our immune system robust to prevent it taking hold. In much the same way we need to keep healthy our resolve to avoid making judgements.

Forced into peace

There’s little comfort for vegans in any stories in the media. All we hear about is how conventional food habits are flourishing. Cuisines making the fullest use of animal foods are all the rage. It’s only ever about taste experiences, variety and freshness. The TV cooks are oblivious of the animals whose body parts they use. And their use of abundant quantities of animal products is made to look like the extravagance we all deserve. There’s never a thought to the harm their rich foods do to human health let alone the harm to the animals who produced them. They are agents of indulgence and the animal and allied industries benefit all round.
Our society is careful never to endanger the animal trade. The acceptability of animal produce is always implied, so if there’s no crime in attacking and eating animals then there can be no judgement, punishment, hence there’s no satisfaction for any vegan who wants to punish the whole of society for what they do to innocent animals. It all seems so unfair but the fact is that the vegan’s sack of retribution is empty. We have nothing coercive to fight with.
But that is to our advantage, as a movement. We can’t morally browbeat, we can’t expose, we can’t ridicule, we can do nothing of this sort to help our case, simply because we are in such a vast minority against such a vast majority attitude. And that’s good for our own future development as effective advocates. Frustrating as it may be for us it is nevertheless good training, for not being judgemental even in our most private thoughts. It forced us to take on a fresh attitude of total non-violence. Only by completely rethinking our attitude to those who disagree with us can we make any headway with them.

We want thinkers not agree-ers

If we are attempting to convince the majority that what they do is wrong and that they should listen to the tiny minority of vegans, we need to have something very attractive on offer. And maybe that’s what we do have. We’re useful. Without a doubt, we can show the way to get off unhygienic, disease-ridden and appallingly unhealthy foods and replace them with something far better. And we also offer a way to escape being involved with the horrendous animal crimes that all consumers are part of. But there is much more. Alongside these attractions there’s the self respect that comes from pulling away from the brainwashed habits we’ve inherited, of exploiting animals because they can’t fight back. Veganism stands against bullying, namely the dominion of humans over animals and turning them into commodities. Vegan lifestyle is cheaper, kinder, more intelligent and it encourages us to be original in our food preparation – eat at a vegan household and you’ll experience new tastes and new dishes, and the cuisine is often a surprise, that such delicious foods can be made from plant based ingredients. But above all this, the most significant attraction is that by becoming vegan we can speak out about the repairs that could transform our species … if enough of us take up vegan eating. By becoming vegan we can join with the growing band of people who are concerned about their planet’s future and think the non-violent approach is the answer. In other words by becoming vegan it allows us to take a brave stand.
Vegans are brave in what they do in their private lives, some go a bit further and are brave in speaking out amidst hostility and ridicule, but there are yet other vegans who are wise enough to move away from being accusers to being helpers. They try to be useful with their time and energy. They try to show people their good natures and that the greater good is something well worth considering. In terms of communicating our message and winning respect, this approach will work where angry tirades against wrong-doing won’t. It’s a slower, surer way of approaching communication but if it were any quicker it would stray into brainwashing. Effectively we are selling a new ‘product’, a new attitude and a new awareness which most people have never really thought about. If we want it to appear attractive it must be upbeat. But more importantly, because we are aiming at long term change we’re not trying to get people merely to agree with us but to think things through for themselves.

The blunt instrument

The idea of Animal Liberation rescuing and liberating animals is right, and what it communicates, about the horrors of the animals’ lives in captivity, is right. And it is right to condemn those people who still continue supporting the animal industries. It’s right but does it work? Who’s left? No one is left. Everyone in the community is condemned. And no one can take it seriously. It might make us feel good but it won’t work – the arsonist will continue to light fires because they’re still angry at society and the meat eating community will not be bullied into giving up their meat eating.
Vegans can be seen to be and very often are bullies. Even amongst one another we have vegan police types, who aren’t backward in coming forward, in their criticisms of their not-quite-high-enough-reaching colleagues. So, overall, the ability of the Animal Rights Movement to carry theory into practice hasn’t worked very well, and I’d suggest that this is because we are still using the blunt instrument of judgement. And as yet, we haven’t even touched on the importance of communicating with ‘the enemy’.
We’ve found over the years that for all our judging and condemning it hasn’t worked quite as smoothly as we expected. There hasn’t been a mass-conversion and our communication failure can be put down to the highly unattractive judgements we’ve been making, using harsh words, noisy protests and plenty of invective. My point is that any amount of outrage, especially from a small group of people, is ineffective. It’s just too easy for people to ignore. Hence for the vast mass of people they can remain blissfully unscathed by protesters’ judgements. Without the support of the law and indeed the opinion of the vast majority of ordinary people, our protest and judgement appear to be simply the sad, mad ravings of a bunch of weirdos. Animal activists are deliciously ignorable.

Judgement and arson

As we swelter in a heatwave the bush, as usual at this time of the year, is burning. Houses have been lost, it’s on the news. No mention of the inhabitants of the bush most of whom couldn’t escape and were burned to death, but that’s another matter. They say the current fires were deliberately lit. There’s public fury about this, about the brave fire fighters risking their lives and the loss of property, and justifiably so. But these fires bring out the angry judgement in us, the frustration and the excuse for harbouring violent feelings towards the arsonist. We’re proud to feel so strongly, in defence of the victims of the arson. But we’re inconsistent with our strong feelings.
In a hot dry country like Australia, where bush fires are common, there is no other person so detested as an arsonist. Here’s someone, often a juvenile, with a pyromaniac tendency. They’re neither safe from their own impulses nor from the fiercest judgement of other people. Here’s someone seeking a kind of recognition, but in a very destructive way, perhaps not fully realising the risks they’re taking, by setting a fire and causing so many deaths, and on being caught they are harshly judged by their community who only want to see them punished severely. The arson draws the fury of people who feel justified in letting it out, and if the arsonist is caught they suffer from public shaming plus the sentence passed down by a professional judge. Nothing shows better how foolish the initial act of arson is and nothing shows up the public thirst for vengeance when it is perpetrated.
But for another equally horrendous crime there is silence. When something is not illegal, and I’m thinking here of the killing and eating of animals, the only thing that might help to put a stop to the destruction is an animal activist who is making a judgement, this time from the morally outraged position, intent on shaming those involved. The activist takes on that responsibility simply because there is no one else to judge this, no professional judge or law to do it for them. It seems quite justified and essential in fact, to voice the heaviest judgement when no one else seems disturbed by the crime. But still the judgement idea must always fail, because at first glance it seems okay (to have formed a strong opinion - the public’s for the arsonist, the vegan’s for the meat eater) but they’re each doomed to failure because they go nowhere near to understanding why the arsonist lights fires or the meat eater is willing to make animals suffer for their own satisfaction. The meat eater is the pyromaniac’s double. And they each need urgent help to cure them of the same urges, to dominate, to violate and to do it all with not a care in the world.

Not letting the side down

All of us are trained from childhood to make judgements of other people - if someone seems bad or stupid or weak our judging of them makes us feel better about ourselves. We like to feel superior. It’s a god-on-my-side safety net. But by being vegan we are also trying to win recognition of the principle of it. It should never be about me and my enlightened position but the abolition of enslavement and how that is so important. Therefore we shouldn’t be judging others, especially because we might damage the whole animal rights movement if we do (in the eyes of the public). If we think we have right on our side we may make ourselves unpopular. And why should that matter? But again, that’s not the point. As vegans we represent other vegans – it’s not our own reputation we might need to think about but the reputation and safety of all concerned. By judging those who aren’t like us, if that’s how we are perceived by others, it puts them off us. It turns them away from a particular way of thinking that they, anyhow, might have come round to in time.
Memory plays tricks on us if we think that because we are vegan now we were always so. Apart from a very few who’ve been vegan from birth we all came from another viewpoint and along the way we’ve changed. Is it possible that we might NOT have become vegan if we’d met up with a judgemental vegan? We might have found them too unattractive to be associated with.
Feeling safe as a vegan should cancel out any need to be judgemental. The violence in our society is a reaction to being thought of as inferior, so we mustn’t encourage that if we don’t want to add to the problem. Violence comes out of a wish to make others feel inferior. Why would we want to do that? We’ve been taught that a dose of violence keeps people in their place or it can drag people up to our level – we presume others need improving and that we don’t? And all this is based on judgement, aggression and a disregard for the non-violent principle.