Wayne Hsiung: This simple framework predicts progress for animals in 2026
There is one overriding strength above all others that gives confidence in the movement’s prospects in 2026. That is the law of social entropy — the irresistible force pushing the world towards equality, and animal rights. In the past 200 years, social justice movements virtually always win once they start moving up the moral escalator. It’s hard to stop progress once you’ve taken the first step. It’s indisputable we’ve taken that step for animal rights. Our greatest strength is that the moral escalator, driven by the law of social entropy, will take us all the way to the top.
WAYNE HSIUNG: Veganism seems like it’s in free fall. The market for alt meat is in collapse. Progress on animal welfare, beyond cage-free eggs, has stalled. And one of the few animal rights stories to garner significant attention in 2025—the trial of Zoe Rosenberg—ended with an animal rights advocate in jail. Yet I remain more optimistic than ever about the prospects for animal rights, and that’s partly because of something called a SWOT analysis.
In 1965, four scholars at Harvard Business School proposed a simple analytical tool for decision-making: Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O), and Threats (T), or SWOT. While their framework is far from perfect, strategic analysis of this sort is an important factor in solving complex problems. That includes the achievement of animal rights. It’s with that in mind that I thought I’d end the year with a SWOT analysis… A SWOT analysis is not meant to be predictive. It sets out factors impacting success but offers no formula for predicting it…
The shift toward institutional approaches, and the rising movement unity, are dramatic changes from what came before. So too is the effort to make repression backfire through voluntary prosecution. And, importantly, these changes are likely to endure. In contrast, the weaknesses and threats to the movement are temporary and fragile. The attentional weakness of the movement, for example, is part of a cycle of waxing and waning disruption that will inevitably shift in the other direction, so long as activists are innovative and willing to sacrifice…
There is, however, one overriding strength above all others that gives me confidence in the movement’s prospects in 2026. That is the law of social entropy — the irresistible force pushing the world towards equality, and animal rights. In the past 200 years, social justice movements virtually always win once they start moving up the moral escalator. It’s hard to stop progress once you’ve taken the first step. It’s indisputable we’ve taken that step for animal rights. Our greatest strength is that the moral escalator, driven by the law of social entropy, will take us all the way to the top. SOURCE
RELATED VIDEO: