The main mission in the animal rights movement at present is towards creating more vegans. Sadly, this mentality has moved us away from the ethical/animal argument and more toward lifestyle. It is shocking how many vegans get upset when you point out that veganism encompasses entertainment and vivisection. This has created enormous compromises in both the message and the outreach. At what point do we start to articulate animal liberation, the ethical argument for veganism? At what point do we tell people that veganism is a social justice movement, not a lifestyle club?
GARY SMITH: The main mission in the animal rights movement at present is towards creating more vegans. Sadly, this obsession has caused us to subordinate animal liberation. It has also created a mentality of “do whatever it takes” to make more vegans. This mentality has moved us away from the ethical/animal argument and more toward health, consumer lifestyle and environmentalism. This has created enormous compromises in the both the message and the outreach.
For instance, there is an inordinate amount of attention paid to celebrities who have gone “vegan” – meaning celebrities who have made a self-serving choice to eat plants. Very few of them ever mention their shift was due to animals or ethics. Not only are we countering a shallow culture with a shallow argument for why people need to support animal liberation, but we are bastardizing the philosophy of veganism. It is shocking to me how many vegans get upset when you point out that veganism encompasses food, clothing, entertainment, and vivisection – and that it is not a diet. What is so radical about using the term for the philosophy properly?
There is so much effort made to express what veganism is going to do for the person being reached out to, rather than what using animals actually does to animals. I see so much outreach about weight loss, reversing or preventing diabetes, heart disease, cancers, clearing up your skin, silkier hair, vegan cupcakes, how delicious the food is. What does any of that have to do with animal liberation? Veganism is not concerned with your health or your skin. Veganism is concerned with the rights of animals to be viewed as persons and members of the moral community, not as objects to be used for greed, taste and entertainment. The meaning has not changed since 1944, when Vegan Society co-founder Donald Watson coined the term “vegan” to mean “a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom,” as well as stating it is “not so much about welfare [of animals] as liberation”…
I get it. We want people to stop eating animals because the large majority of animals murdered are done so for food. I also get that if we can convince people to stop eating animals and their secretions, the possibility of them hearing the animal liberation picture increases. I also appreciate it when people choose to eat plants, but I question whether our tactics are speeding us towards animal liberation or moving us farther away. I see us moving farther away. At what point do we start to articulate animal liberation, the ethical argument for veganism? At what point do we start to articulate the animal rights message? At what point do we tell people that veganism is a social justice movement, not a lifestyle club filled with vegan cupcakes, potlucks and recipe books (not that those don’t rule)? SOURCE…
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