victor
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Homepage: http://loveallbeings.org
Posts by victor
The importance of criticism
Mar 5th
Recently, some members raised questions about the role of criticism in vegan activism. I believe continual critical reflection is necessary to build a strong foundation for our beliefs and to improve the effectiveness of our actions.
Critically examining our ideas
If we don’t critically examine our ideas, we will not be responsive to new experiences that contradict our old ideas. We can choose to cling desperately to our ideas even as evidence to the contrary mounts, or we can choose to accept the uncertainty of not knowing and learn from our new experiences.
As I have written about previously, it was precisely the constant challenge of a skeptical public that forced me to understand the insufficiency of suffering as a basis for veganism. Accepting the reality of the repeated failure of my arguments allowed me to ask, “Why aren’t people convinced by the argument? Why can’t I refute their logic? Is there a problem with my logic?” This inquiry helped deepen my understanding of veganism and helped me become a more effective, confident advocate in the process.
My experience showed me that even if we don’t question our beliefs, the public certainly will and they will focus on the weaknesses in our ideas. We may as well proactively address them ourselves before the public forces us to.
Critically examining our actions
If we don’t critically examine our actions, we won’t have any basis for evaluating whether or not our efforts are effective in helping us reach our goals. If we instead rely on guesswork and wishful thinking, it’s easy for us to fool ourselves into believing we are effective when, in fact, we are not. Rather than mistake hard work for progress, we can choose to think honestly about what we do and become more effective advocates by learning from this process.
As an example, the animal welfare corporation I used to work for promotes leafleting as the single most effective action we can take as individuals to inspire people to switch to plant-based diets. They claim that 2.5% of people who receive their booklets will switch to a vegetarian diet. However, critical thinking allows us to look at the actual results of leafleting with their literature (e.g., out of 6,000 people who received booklets at one concert, only one wrote in requesting a vegetarian starter guide) and ask the questions, “Is leafleting really as effective as I was told? Could we do a better job in tracking our total impact? How might leafleting be made more effective? What are the weaknesses to leafleting? When is leafleting effective? When is it not? Are there other forms of activism that may be more effective? Why would this corporation offer an obviously incorrect claim on their web site?”
Facing our fears
My experience of being challenged on anti-suffering veganism was unpleasant. Not only was the atmosphere contentious, but there was the added fear that maybe I was wrong all this time and that all the work I had been doing and sacrifices I had made would not yield the progress I had thought they would.
Having experienced this fear, I understand why the leadership of the animal welfare movement is so scared of challenges. The fear is so strong that they instinctively reject any criticism and often react by personally attacking those bringing up concerns as a way to avoid addressing the criticism. While understandable, this is unfortunate, as it results in an insular community that values the false comfort of self-deception over the continued critical analysis necessary for effective advocacy.
Criticism is valuable because it offers us the choice to face the fears that we might not choose to face on our own. If we opt to consider the criticism, we have the opportunity to test and refine our understanding and thereby develop a stronger, more confident, deeper understanding of the issues. It helps us pierce the bubble of complacency that forms when we listen only to opinions that match our own. And it helps us move from a reactive doing that may be satisfying but not necessarily effective to a thoughtful, considered action more likely to advance our goals.
What veganism means to me
Feb 22nd
For as long as I can remember, I’ve found feeling to be very scary. In some ways, it’s easier to close myself off so I can never get hurt, but it’s a cold, lonely path of living in the shadows. So when I watch a video of a pig being killed so we can eat her flesh, it’s hard not to look away. If I allow myself, I feel pain as I watch her struggle as her throat is slit, her blood and life pouring out onto the floor, one beautiful life among thousands taken at that spot. And if I look more deeply, I feel so much sorrow thinking about her life, brought into existence by humans solely to satisfy us, living a life of total servitude for us, her life deemed by us to be less important than our desire for the taste of her flesh.
When I was young, my family stopped eating grapes after learning that workers were being sprayed with pesticides by the owners while they were out in the fields. I remember the tension in my mind every time I saw grapes at the market between wanting to eat grapes (I really liked eating grapes!) and thinking about the hidden (to me) cost to the workers being sprayed in the fields. When the cost is to another being, it’s easy to pretend it’s not that important.
Veganism is the thundering voice of conscience that doesn’t allow me to look away, that overrides the whimpering protests of my personal discomfort, that shows me my responsibility in each situation, and asks me to choose peace over violence, love over selfishness. It’s the empathy that changes my perspective from “I want grapes, but they spray the workers” to “I don’t want grapes because they spray the workers” to “How could I want grapes? They spray the workers!” And it’s the openness that allows me to once again experience the warmth and beauty of life.
Why did you go vegan?
Jan 29th
K. asked on the COMMUNITY list: “What was it that made everyone here go vegan?” I thought it would be nice to have a permanent location for us to share our stories and learn a little about each other. On the other parts of this web site, we use a specific definition of veganism, but please feel free to interpret this question however you like.
So, what was it that made you go vegan?
Anti-Oppression and Animal Rights
Jan 18th
How is anti-oppression different from animal rights? During the discussion of Steven’s post On Suffering and “Unnecessary Harm”, chernavsky wrote:
As far as I can tell, the philosophy promoted on this site is entirely compatible with the views of Gary Francione — and I’m actually surprised that he’s not mentioned anywhere. Here’s an excerpt from a lecture he gave:
“The foundational premise of the abolitionist perspective is veganism. As far as I’m concerned, veganism is the single most important form of social activism that anybody can engage in. And it’s not a lifestyle thing. It has to do with a commitment to non-violence, and it has to do with a commitment to the respect for persons, whether they are human persons or non-human persons.”
http://www.gary-francione.com/francione-rochester-lecture.html
I think there is an important distinction. Since this diverges somewhat from Steven’s original topic and because this may be of general interest, I thought I’d respond in this new thread. These comments are, for the most part, not specific to Francione’s formulation and also apply to the difference between anti-oppression and animal welfare.
An understanding of power (and the resulting privilege), which I think is central to the anti-oppression view of veganism, is something I have not seen in animal rights (or animal welfare) formulations. Stephen noted this as well. I know for myself I’ve had difficulty writing about power, so perhaps Francione’s view seems similar because we haven’t explained this point clearly enough.
My experience is that recognizing power comes naturally to oppressed groups. In the realm of confronting racism, people of color very often speak directly about power and privilege. I don’t think this is an accident. When one is in the oppressed group, I think it’s obvious that power imbalance is a huge problem. For those in the role of oppressor (as I am, among other ways, as a male), it may be more difficult to recognize: because I am in the power position, I don’t receive any push-back when exercising that power. Because privilege is so often invisible to the oppressor, if I don’t explicitly think in terms of power and privilege, I very likely will remain unaware of the true grip of sexism over my thoughts and actions and therefore be unable to disengage myself from participating in and perpetuating that system.
Similarly, when confronting speciesism, I am in the role of oppressor as a human animal with human animal privilege that is often invisible to me. By thinking directly in terms of power and privilege, I can start to disentangle myself from the sway of speciesist oppression, which necessarily also means working to end the broader systems supporting that oppression.
The anti-oppression view of veganism encompases both animal and human animal oppression. Power and privilege provide a common basis for understanding each of these oppressions. For many people, including myself, experience with multiple forms of oppression reveals patterns of interaction and behavior, all centered around power difference and privilege, common to all forms of oppression. For myself, it is difficult to speak in detail about any form of oppression without referring to power.
As a practical matter, I’m not sure how the abolition of animal use can be effected without addressing the issue of our power over animals. I imagine one might be able to say property status (a la Francione) is a way of exercising power over another, but that seems a step removed to me and therefore obscuring what seems to me to be the main point.
Acknowledging Privilege
Jan 17th
Conversations about privilege can be volatile. I feel an immediate contraction upon having my privilege called out. When Miranda points out a sexist statement or action I made, my reaction is to cover up my embarrassment by lashing out with anger “I’m not sexist! How dare you!”
This is an understandable reaction (right, Miranda?). After all, I don’t think sexism is okay and I don’t want to think that I participate in sexism. Basically, I’m embarrassed! But what I do is transfer my anger and make it the fault of the messenger. This is not very helpful. So one of my personal challenges is to move past the embarrassment and to listen to what Miranda is telling me about my actions.
I know when Miranda speaks with me about my privilege, she is not doing so to say that I am a “bad person,” but to let me know what I said hurt her so we can look at it together. Can I receive her feedback, not as a personal attack, but as one about my actions? At the same time, can I accept responsibility for my statements and actions and the harm they cause? And from there, what can I learn about myself and can this lead to personal growth and a deeper understanding of the issues?
Practicing communication with Miranda in this way helps me in the conversations we’re having at L.O.V.E. about speciesism. One challenge in speaking about speciesism is that we are speaking about ourselves. That is, each one of us holds speciesist views and human privilege. It’s inevitable given that we have grown up in and continue to live as humans in a human dominated world.
So for me, when we speak about speciesism, there is always the specter of that moment of contraction as I realize, “Whoa! You’re (or even I’m!) talking about me!” At that moment, my challenge is to not personalize the statement and to try to discern the content of the message to better understand my own human privilege and the larger society it emerges from.
I think this is an important role of being an ally to non-human animals. After all, it is only after recognizing and acknowledging my own speciesism that I can begin the work to end it in my own life and in the world.
Dropping the activist label
Jan 4th
Over the past few years, I have noticed how many vegans divide ourselves into two categories: the activists and everybody else. Most of the time, the activist category consists of employees of animal welfare non-profits and a handful of “superstar” volunteers. I know some people who are very active in promoting veganism who don’t consider themselves activists. Ironically, some of these “non-activists” do more for veganism than the leaders of some of these non-profits!
LOVE’s FAQ defines veganism as “an active ethical stand against the oppression of any sentient being, human or non-human.” This means, when using this definition, we can drop the “activist” label and simply say “vegan.” Without the burden of the artificial delineation between “real” activists and the rest of us, we can concentrate on working to end oppression. It also means no longer ceding responsibility to “real” activists for change in our communities and instead taking personal responsibility for doing so.
This also means no longer confining activism to the narrow realm of what “real” activists do. So all the conversations we have with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors about speciesist and other forms of oppression; our efforts to build a community with local vegans; our efforts to support new vegans so they thrive as vegans; the many ways small and large we each work to end oppressive systems – all of this is activism, all of this is the vital, necessary work veganism asks of us.
Last year, Miranda and I met fellow LOVE member S. when they were visiting from Spain. They told us how all the vegans they know in Spain are activists and how there is a culture of activism in that vegan community. When I think about what that would look like here, I feel very inspired. This is the kind of atmosphere I hope we can all help create in our communities. When we stop outsourcing activism, we reclaim the power and possibility of change.
Confessions of a Speciesist
Dec 24th
I love the new MySpace page that Steven created. Not only is it a great way to reach many people with the anti-oppression view of veganism, it broadens the coverage of issues from our pamphlet, which more narrowly focuses on animals used for food.
In my former life as a person basing my veganism on reducing the suffering of animals, I took a peculiar pride in focusing solely on animals used for food. I had heard (and used) the argument many times before: upwards of 95% of animals used by human animals are exploited by animal agriculture. I felt those who worked on other issues, including circuses, rodeos, pets, fur and vivisection, were using their energies unwisely.
Now I recognize this argument as speciesist. As a human animal, I have the luxury of deciding whose life I deem to be important. Because I am not the elephant at the zoo, I can say (implicitly or explicitly) that the elephant’s life is less important than the life of the chicken in the broiler house. I am horrified that I ever made such a callous judgment and now understand both individuals are equally important.
Even now, when doing public outreach, I show footage of animals used for food. In doing so, I wield my human animal privilege by making a deliberate choice not to show footage of other uses of animals. At each moment, I try to make choices as best I can given my various limitations of time, energy and other factors. That may mean making a choice, enabled by privilege, that I later find unacceptable. As an example, I made a deliberate decision not to mention human animal issues in LOVE’s vegan pamphlet, even in the section speaking about a vegan diet, choosing instead to focus on speciesist oppression. That I felt there was a choice is my privilege in action.
I have been experiencing a shift in my personal thinking about activism. This weekend, a fellow vegan spoke with me about a local retirement community’s plans to shoot 50 acorn woodpeckers, some of whom may be boring into the buildings. In the past, I would have thought such concern for the woodpeckers to be insignificant compared to the billions of animals killed each year for food. Now I finally understand the speciesist privilege in that thinking and know every one of those lives is important. Now I finally understand that all the different ways human animals oppose the use of animals — all of it is vital work – not only as opportunities for education about the various manifestations of speciesist oppression, but also in their own right as protests against injustice.
With the MySpace page, Steven has started to detail other examples of speciesist oppression. We’ve been wanting to bring this into our pamphlet for some time, but have not been able to find time to do so. Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to expand on some of that great text on the MySpace page in the pamphlet and have something to offer that helps bring down another speciesist barrier.
Speaking your truth
Dec 16th
One of LOVE’s core values is honest communication and part of honest communication is honesty in advocacy. I believe honest advocacy means more than being factually correct; it means telling your truth. Fellow LOVE member J. beautifully illustrates this distinction in an email they sent yesterday about a presentation they are preparing on veganism. They write:
“Originally, I thought I’d say that by adopting a vegan diet, you can help animals, help the environment, and help your own body. However, I now feel that I want to tell the truth, about why I promote veganism. The fact is, even if farm animals were treated very well, and animal agribusiness wasn’t harmful to the environment, and animal products were good for human health, I still think it’s wrong to use animals, without their consent. And since animals can’t give their consent, then it’s just plain wrong to use animals.”
Animal welfare organizations offer many reasons to go vegetarian, but I’ve never heard a single one actually advocate telling our own personal truths. Some ostensibly support truth telling, if only for its efficacy (“honest advocacy is powerful advocacy”), but when some of us who helped start LOVE spoke our truth during and about our vegan advocacy efforts, the animal welfare oligarchy stepped in to try to shut us down.
Until relatively recently, I never asked myself, “Why am I vegan?” nor was I ever encouraged to do so. Because of that, I approached animal advocacy the way I was taught: I memorized a handful of reasons why somebody might choose a plant-based diet and, when I met a potential vegan, I would throw at them the argument I thought they would respond best to. If that didn’t stick, I’d move down the list and throw each successive argument at them until I ran through the list.
The whole time, I felt that overpowering crying-out inside me as promoting somebody else’s agenda repeatedly led to conclusions I found unacceptable: condoning “humane” dairy, eggs and meat; eating less meat as an end goal; condoning hunting and fishing. Many activists I’ve spoken with have shared with me how they felt that same terrible, confusing feeling.
Years later, when I came out of the daze and actually stopped to think about why I was vegan, I realized it wasn’t for all those reasons other people had told me. And it was at that moment of stopping that I started to understand my truth about veganism.
It’s my belief that the way we engage in activism reflects our values. By striving to communicate honestly, directly, and clearly both facts and my intentions, I have experienced a shift in the quality of my activism from a frantic selling of veganism by any means necessary to others to one of engaging in dialogue with others. In so doing, I believe I have begun to restore my integrity and bring the respect I feel inside for others to my activism. So I encourage you, if you’ve never done so before, to ask yourself why you are vegan and I encourage you to speak your truth with others. Because honest advocacy is respectful advocacy.
A path to L.O.V.E.
Dec 8th
October 17, 2007. Earlier that evening, I had spoken with a group of budding pig farmers in eastern Washington state. I was working full time as the Western Outreach Coordinator for Vegan Outreach, had daily experience in fielding questions from skeptical omnivores about animal suffering and cruelty, and had answered every question “by the book,” so why was it that nothing I said had seemed to get through? And why, I wondered, did I feel like that in small ways every day in my conversations with omnivores about veganism?
That night, sitting in my car replaying and unpacking all these conversations in my head, I realized that what I thought I thought about veganism didn’t mesh with how I truly felt. I had the sudden realization that suffering and cruelty are symptoms of a deeper problem. That moment started me on the path to L.O.V.E.
When Miranda and I first started talking about veganism from within the framework of oppression, it was exciting and lonely: exciting because we could finally articulate the connection we always knew was there between speciesism and the other forms of oppression we were working against, lonely because we didn’t know anybody else who felt the same way.
As it turned out, there were plenty of people who did feel this way. We read The Dreaded Comparison. We discovered the great writers at The Vegan Ideal and the Vegans of Color blogs. And then we found out Jenna felt the same way. And Steven. Far from being alone, we had joined a growing movement!
And yet there was something missing. There was no place where a person could learn the whys and hows of veganism in a way consistent with anti-oppression. There was no place that provided resources and other support for activists in this movement. So here we are today, creating this community to support those spreading the anti-oppression view of veganism.
I hope this blog, our web site and mailing list will be jumping off points for a continuing conversation and learning about veganism as anti-oppression. I invite you to participate in the discussion, challenge our ideas and your own, and see where it takes us all.