Consider the following:
A. Most vegan activists will agree that humans - as all species - are selfish and violent by nature and that most of them do not care about nonhuman suffering.
B. Most vegan activists dedicate their activity time to vegan education and believe animal exploitation will end within 100 years.[1]
Don't you agree these two cognitions are inconsistent with each other? It is impossible to convince humans - who hold the freedom of choice - to behave against their own nature.
Vegan education is based on moral justice, while humans' choice is based on self interest. In our case, these are two contradictory things.[2]
It's so frustrating to admit, but the reason this dissonance is so common among activists is selfishness (which we all struggle with):
"Let's be honest. The animal rights movement as we now know it will never become a revolutionary struggle because the representatives of the oppressed enjoy enough privilege from the system they oppose to prevent them from supporting, let alone engaging in actual revolutionary activity that would risk those comforts."
--Rod Coronado, "Hypocrisy Is Our Greatest Luxury" (no longer available online)
The Only One Solution Manifest begins its attention to vegan education with the next paragraph:
"Have you ever wondered why is it so hard to convince someone to go vegan?
We don’t need to tell you how morally initiatory and how nutritiously simple veganism is. So how come it is so hard, even for many people who define themselves as "animal lovers", to become vegans? It is a question we have constantly asked ourselves when we were "vegan converters". Could it be that the obstacle to veganism is the messengers? Not enough health food stores? The price of soy milk? Not enough vegan celebrities? Not enough visual evidence about what is going on in factory farms? You know it is not any of these.
The question we are asking ourselves now in the only one solution movement is how come animal rights activists don’t see that the problem is with the addressees?"
Most activists probably know deep down it is not the messengers but the addressees, but as Rod Coronado put it so well, the price is too high.
[1] According to recent survey (which is no longer available online) that was first presented in the 12th International Vegan Festival, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 22-25, 2009.
[2] Some people would argue that acting morally is part of anyone's self interest, but this is not true. For most people - morality is a negligible consideration, it is important for them to feel peaceful with their choice. Meaning, they will seek (and find) a justification to continue with their violent acts ("animals in nature kill and eat other animals all the time", for example) and continue to ignore the most basic moral principle ("Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you").
Actually I have a problem with "selfish and violent by nature"- Some vegans might believe that, but I think many don't believe that violence is in our nature. On the contrary, I often hear animal rights people say that violent acts go AGAINST human nature, and that this contradiction results in cognitive dissonance among meat eaters. If abusing, tormenting and eating animals was truly in our nature, there'd be no use in denying that animals feel pain, or sticking fingers in your ears whenever someone mentions what goes on in a slaughterhouse.
ReplyDelete"...most of them do not care about nonhuman suffering." Again, I think this is a problematic claim once we understand how important it is for the supporters of animal (ab)use to distance themselves from the crime. And why? Because they DO care about suffering. Or at least they want to be the kind of people who care about suffering. But at the same time, an average person doesn't want to break traditions or change old habits. Change still happens because humans do care, and sometimes caring wins over tradition... I'm not born "special" and I wasn't destined to become a vegan. There is nothing special about us vegans in terms of caring about suffering except that we practice what we preach.
"...believe animal exploitation will end within 100 years." Honestly I don't know. It's hard to say for me when we can expect next paradigm shift. Maybe history of human rights can give us a clue, but I realise that the fight for animal rights is much harder. I also realise that sexism didn't end when women got a right to vote, and that racism didn't end with abolition of slavery. But a paradigm shift did happen and I do believe that it can happen again. I also know that the bare minimum requirement for the next shift is to practice veganism. It won't happen without it. And maybe it's pointless to talk about when?
About convincing people to go vegan. It's tough. I believe it's very important to make veganism available and accessible to people. It has to feel like a personal decision rather than "being convinced by someone." Because this empowers the individual, makes them feel they have a choice, rather than feeling pressured or criticized... But this is just my own personal experience. Also I admit it's very very hard not to criticize some people...