We've been asking ourselves: Can nonhumans be liberated from their enslavementas 'property' to that of legally-recognized personhood without a higher threshold of vegans worldwide (or within one legal jurisdiction)?
I want to jump to WHY we need to support deontological thinking with consequentialist thinking?
Unless there's evidence to SUPPORT the shadow belief that other humans CAN readily (and thus will) see the logic inherent in abolitionism, going vegan, and legal rights for nonhumans, the consequentialist side or aspect of our understanding(s) must (or should) serve as a backup to any advocacy for animals because, if 'the others' think that they are paying TOO dearly for any of these ideas, their 'disconnects' with thinking them through will occur at various (and often unidentified points) along 'the way' in their process of being 'educated'. We (self-styled) 'advocates' are not the best arbiters of whether or not 'the public' is being 'educated'; 'the public' calls the shots in their own learning because they are 'existentially free' - in a 'posture of freedom' with regard to what occurs to them, including presentations. They can merely 'turn off' their cellphones or landline phones as they wish; they can merely turn off advocacy, too, if it's going to cost them too much, and that's what we call 'anxiety'.
The anxiety about any change needs to be lower than the anxiety of staying the same, with keeping the status quo in a matter or an area.
To ourselves, the consequentialist side may not be decisive in OUR remaining vegan, but the general 'others' (all 6.828 billion OTHER humans on this planet) are not we; they are individually 'the they' - 'das Man' (the other) in Heidegger's terms, 'the public', and they are not behaviorally or phenomenologically who we are, even when they function structurally as we do.
The similarities are ways we talk with others; the differences are points of discussion IF we honor the inherent freedom and potential authenticity of others.
Those who claim that you 'don't understand' just need to try a little harder to understand the communications interfaces and challenges we confront. They are many; simple sound bites among ourselves do not teach or educate our own numbers; how could we POSSIBLY EVER educate others?
Points to be made are just that: points to be made, and they are good. But effective communication is yet another chore, a distinct chore. Various groups do something LIKE communications, based on their internal assumptions. Success is nearly impossible to measure, as nearly all marketing companies will confess about their own advertising and marketing campaigns. Budgets (money allocated for the costs of accomplishing their ends) are the primary concern; measuring effectiveness is another, and suitable leadership - thought leadership - is way up there with primary concerns.
Clarifying abolitionism is one task; Clarifying abolitionism is not coextensive with communicating effectively with the unsympathetic (or partially unsympathetic but woo-able) general public.
Don't turn me off here, since I'm really with you all (us). PETA's claim is that their budgets justify the success of their techniques. You and are a deeply suspicious of 'PETA loyalist' claims that because THEY went vegan under PETA's influences 'then' (sometime in the past), PETA's strange (and objectionable) tactics today justify our 'lumping it' and going with the (PETA-driven) 'flow' - why? ' 'for the animals'. But 'leadership' can be negative or bad, and perhaps the logic here isn't good.
Doing something ostensibly for a purpose isn't identical with doing something for the reality of that purpose; it may describe the inner thinking (the phenomenology) of the willing actors, but without measuring outcomes, these 'campaigns' fail even the consequentialist test.
I've merely been pointing out that, in line with Peter Singer, many, many folks who go veggie (at various levels) have learned to think as consequentialists, as pragmatists, as results-oriented expectants, even if they FAIL to do what consequentialism logically requires: testing the results.
Jean-Paul Sartre said that the meaning of history is the outcomes of our actions, and Scandinavian theologian Nels F. S. Ferre taught that the meaning of living in history is the coming to fruition of THE CHOICES OF OTHERS (for our choices do not override the choices of others). Categories of sociality, love, compassion, other-orientedness, ethics, altruism, etc. are all - look carefully - real, legitimate, defensible, and useful existential categories with which to live our lives.
We don't change others merely by the overriding forces of OUR will, nor merely by 'wooing' them to veganism seductively, as many teen vegan women seem to think will 'work' with their hunky nonvegetarian boyfriends. We enable their growth and development in social contexts, and we do much more, for social existence is very complex.
Group social relationships (structured and unstructured) can be studied 'up the wazoo' (not the scholarly term used by social scientists), but somehow, finding ourselves (as individual and variable as we are) is crucial to our living authentically among those numerous social groupings through which we pass throughout our days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc.
If Jean-Paul Sartre is correct in his analysis, the 'meaning' of all this vegan social living and thinking will be determined by whether or not we accept, unfolding in front of us, the authentic decisionmaking of manifold others who 'get it' about going vegan.
Clear philosophy has a place, and perhaps some public stunts will, also (I'd rather have singable pro-vegan pro-animal music, but that's not on the agenda, apparently, among vegan groups, even if they write songs). However, measurement is what successful corporations do, and though Ralph Nader 'wishes' to the contrary, this IS a world where corporations' success can be seen. Why? Perhaps because they do 'reality testing' frequently, periodically, carefully, intensively, and expectantly. Resources are devoted to measuring what comes of what they do, and perhaps we ought to do some of the same sort of thing - with a set of vegan think tanks that have resources to actually measure.
We used to look to VRG - the Vegetarian Resource Group - to tell us how many vegetarians and vegans there are. To get that socially-desired data, they paid marketing firms to interview the general public (so that required putting sets of questions in various survey instruments that were ALSO used for other purposes. We trusted that data, but we also learned that our percentages are not growing (significantly).
We can speculate why that is our historical lot. I think that the influx of nonvegetarian populations who COULD quite easily be swayed towards more nearly plant-based diets (the same groups that work in slaughterhouses, to our dismay) bends the numbers, and our social traits as vegans freely but not efficiently networking prevent us from making communications and outreach ('evangelism') a low priority (to nonexistent concern).
So,
(a) we've not scoped out the challenges and possibilities.
(b) we shy away from the distasteful challenges we've already discovered
(c) we imagine from within, without the necessary evidence bases for effective actions
(d) we content ourselves with many new books and media which, in effect, communicate TO us about clarifying our vegan values (in other words, the authors tapped their markets).
(e) we fail to learn about advocacy from the vegetarian businesses, who guarded their ideas and marketing acumen as if it were private IP (intellectual property) and ceded their potential roles as 'thought leaders' in the vegetarian movement in favor of running (or managing) their business (when they could have collaborated with one another - thinking together about how to grow the market by increasing the number of vegetarians and vegans who would naturally WANT their products, leaving that responsibility to the nonprofits and advocacy groups, like you and I know 'on the ground').
(f) it's a pity that animals are dying because of our inefficiencies; it's a pity we haven't done better; it's a pity we haven't learned to [bracket] our inner energies (personalities, Buddhist meditation, Alan Beck's Mindfulness Based Therapy, sporadic energies that emerge in our bodies and minds, etc.) and have lead the sheep (democratically?) run the movement where we need vision and (collective or shared) leadership.
Now, to return to the question (which I merely THINK that I've clarified somewhat), will a threshold percentage of vegans make possible, predictable, likely, foreseeable a recognition of their personhood through a change in their legal status?
That's a yes or no, but that COULD be a yes or no in certain jurisdictions, just as we have regional jurisdictions (states, provinces, cities) that decide some elements of social life locally or regionally, without a national or international consensus.
What might that threshold percentage be? Do we have any evidence base for approximating such a threshold percentage?
Maynard
Showing posts with label advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advocacy. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Sara Kaffashi - Environmental Economist in Southeast Asia
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Kaffashi/289976778037
167.9
Post Quality
That's 169.9 on a TYPICAL scale of 1 to 5.
Friday, January 29, 2010
World Day for the Abolition of Meat
It's global.
World Day for the Abolition of Meat
- The next World Day for the Abolition of Meat will be held on 30th January 2010 (Saturday).
- This day is intended as a means of promoting the idea of abolishing the murder of animals for food. Worldwide six million sentient beings are killed for their meat every hour!
- That figure doesn't even count the fish and other sea animals, which of course are included in the demand for the abolition of meat.
- Meat consumption causes more suffering and death than any other human activity and is completely unnecessary.
- Many groups will mobilize to promote the abolition of meat (and other animal products). They will not only advocate vegetarianism and veganism to individuals but will call for society to abandon the practice of killing animals for food. We hope that this initiative will strengthen the animal rights movement over the years.
- It is important to address people not only as consumers but also as citizens like the anti-slavery activists who, although only a small minority, not only sought a boycott of sugar produced by slaves but also clearly expressed the idea that slavery should be banned.
It is important today to question society as a whole about the murder of animals for food so that it can no longer avoid a public debate on the legitimacy of this practice.
On 30 January conferences, street actions, leafleting, and information stands will be organized to spread the idea that the consumption of meat cannot be justified ethically and should therefore be abolished just as human slavery was in its time.
On 30 January conferences, street actions, leafleting, and information stands will be organized to spread the idea that the consumption of meat cannot be justified ethically and should therefore be abolished just as human slavery was in its time.
You CREATE an event. Have you created an event where you are?
I suggest a do-it-yourself event like a barrage of any set of media sources with carefully-crafted e-mail messages about how meat is needless, tastes for meet can be satisfied TODAY with other foods (and in vitro meat is in the offing, which means that even carnivorous animals can have food without killing other animals - in the foreseeable future; no ETA is yet available), and a world without animal agriculture is the kinder, gentler world that the survival and development of human life requires.
That simple rationale can be endorsed by all dietary vegans without violating any humans 'rights' or claims or preferences or socially-conditioned tastes, which I think is ALL that most resistance to the abolition of animal agriculture is about.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Vegan advocacy for introverts
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Vegan activism need not be intimidating!
Vegan advocacy is often veryoff-putting for introvertive folks who find speaking to others about moral or political issues terrifying. However, even the very shy can make a difference for non-human animals. When it comes down to it, you can go very far in your outreach without having speaking to anyone face to face. By adopting these ten easy activities, the number of people reached could be substantial. Vegan outreach need not be intimidating, but it should be pervasive and persistent. There's no reason for anyone who recognizes the inherent injustice and the terrible truth of non-human animal use to stand by idly.
1. The Vegan Car
Those in traffic will have no choice but to read your thought-provoking bumper stickers. From parking lots to interstates, a well-labeled vegan car is effective outreach en mass. Vanity plates, too, while limited in their breadth, are excellent vehicles for outreach.
2. Vegan Voicemail
A vegan-related voicemail or answering machine message is great for frequent-callers, new friends, and businesses who must listen to the voicemail to leave a message. Often you will find your message is prefaced by the caller's reaction!
3. Vegan Snail Mail
Always slip vegan literature into all outgoing mail, especially bills. Don’t forget to seal the envelope with a vegan sticker!
4. Vegan "Litter"
Always carry vegan literature with you. Small brochures like Gary Francione’s Abolitionist Approach pamphlet, are easy to carry in your purse, backpack, or glove box. Leave them in veterinarian’s offices, gyms, public spaces on campus or at work, etc.
5. Internet Social Networking
By regularly posting articles, videos, or comments regarding vegan abolitionist animal rights on networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, you can access a large network of friends and friends of friends.
6. Vegan Email
Add a vegan-oriented quote to your email signature. If your email allows, a small photograph also draws attention and sparks thought.
7. Vegan News
While writing an editorial might seem daunting, non-human animal issues are often popular with newspapers and magazines. The uniqueness of the abolitionist vegan approach is also useful for getting printed. If one source turns you down, simply send it to another. If the writing is good, it is unlikely it will be rejected indefinitely.
8. Vegan Food
Bring a delicious vegan dish to company, group, or family get togethers. Make sure it is labeled vegan. If the crowd is likely to be closed-minded to death-free dining, don’t mention the dish to be vegan until after they’ve enjoyed it.
9. The Vegan Public Space
Offices, dorms, cubicles, etc. are seen by countless persons. If permitted, post vegan fliers and lay literature out for the passerby to peruse. If possible, plaster doors with bright, eye-catching vegan material to enlighten.
10. Be Vegan and Stay Vegan
Simply being vegan is in itself superb direct action for non-human animals. Living your life day to day, you will make choices that will positively impact non-human animals and those around you. Help destroy the negative stereotype surrounding vegans. Maintaining a well-adjusted, happy vegan front is the easiest and most effective activism you can accomplish.
Offices, dorms, cubicles, etc. are seen by countless persons. If permitted, post vegan fliers and lay literature out for the passerby to peruse. If possible, plaster doors with bright, eye-catching vegan material to enlighten.
10. Be Vegan and Stay Vegan
Simply being vegan is in itself superb direct action for non-human animals. Living your life day to day, you will make choices that will positively impact non-human animals and those around you. Help destroy the negative stereotype surrounding vegans. Maintaining a well-adjusted, happy vegan front is the easiest and most effective activism you can accomplish.
Vegan advocacy for introverts
Vegan activism need not be intimidating!
Vegan advocacy is often veryoff-putting for introvertive folks who find speaking to others about moral or political issues terrifying. However, even the very shy can make a difference for non-human animals. When it comes down to it, you can go very far in your outreach without having speaking to anyone face to face. By adopting these ten easy activities, the number of people reached could be substantial. Vegan outreach need not be intimidating, but it should be pervasive and persistent. There's no reason for anyone who recognizes the inherent injustice and the terrible truth of non-human animal use to stand by idly.
1. The Vegan Car
Those in traffic will have no choice but to read your thought-provoking bumper stickers. From parking lots to interstates, a well-labeled vegan car is effective outreach en mass. Vanity plates, too, while limited in their breadth, are excellent vehicles for outreach.
2. Vegan Voicemail
A vegan-related voicemail or answering machine message is great for frequent-callers, new friends, and businesses who must listen to the voicemail to leave a message. Often you will find your message is prefaced by the caller's reaction!
3. Vegan Snail Mail
Always slip vegan literature into all outgoing mail, especially bills. Don’t forget to seal the envelope with a vegan sticker!
4. Vegan "Litter"
Always carry vegan literature with you. Small brochures like Gary Francione’s Abolitionist Approach pamphlet, are easy to carry in your purse, backpack, or glove box. Leave them in veterinarian’s offices, gyms, public spaces on campus or at work, etc.
5. Internet Social Networking
By regularly posting articles, videos, or comments regarding vegan abolitionist animal rights on networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, you can access a large network of friends and friends of friends.
6. Vegan Email
Add a vegan-oriented quote to your email signature. If your email allows, a small photograph also draws attention and sparks thought.
7. Vegan News
While writing an editorial might seem daunting, non-human animal issues are often popular with newspapers and magazines. The uniqueness of the abolitionist vegan approach is also useful for getting printed. If one source turns you down, simply send it to another. If the writing is good, it is unlikely it will be rejected indefinitely.
8. Vegan Food
Bring a delicious vegan dish to company, group, or family get togethers. Make sure it is labeled vegan. If the crowd is likely to be closed-minded to death-free dining, don’t mention the dish to be vegan until after they’ve enjoyed it.
9. The Vegan Public Space
Offices, dorms, cubicles, etc. are seen by countless persons. If permitted, post vegan fliers and lay literature out for the passerby to peruse. If possible, plaster doors with bright, eye-catching vegan material to enlighten.
10. Be Vegan and Stay Vegan
Simply being vegan is in itself superb direct action for non-human animals. Living your life day to day, you will make choices that will positively impact non-human animals and those around you. Help destroy the negative stereotype surrounding vegans. Maintaining a well-adjusted, happy vegan front is the easiest and most effective activism you can accomplish.
Offices, dorms, cubicles, etc. are seen by countless persons. If permitted, post vegan fliers and lay literature out for the passerby to peruse. If possible, plaster doors with bright, eye-catching vegan material to enlighten.
10. Be Vegan and Stay Vegan
Simply being vegan is in itself superb direct action for non-human animals. Living your life day to day, you will make choices that will positively impact non-human animals and those around you. Help destroy the negative stereotype surrounding vegans. Maintaining a well-adjusted, happy vegan front is the easiest and most effective activism you can accomplish.
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