A fellow local vegan blogger had an interesting post about how environmentalists are being slow to accept the connection between global climate change and meat production.
My opinion is that people are not rational animals. They are animals who have the ability to be rational for limited periods of time for specific issues. They aren’t computers where it is simply a matter of feeding them new information to get them to adjust their behavior.
That happens, sometimes, and it is wonderful.
Most of the time people are creatures of emotion and habit that reflexively resist rapid change.
This is no less true of vegans. I can’t tell you the funny looks I have gotten from some vegans when bringing up political or ethical issues outside of their bailiwick.
It is the same for most people, including any kind of activist, including environmentalists.
People will change their behavior with time, repetition, and various pressures. They will change faster when approached in a more skillful way. I guess that is why propagandists, marketing experts, and charismatic leaders will always have a place in human society.
The meat<=> climate change connection, has been backed up by the UN and this was in the New York Times. The message got out there and out there with significant authority.
If we keep talking about it and pushing more people will turn.
Just the other week a friend of mine from a few jobs back emailed me for advice on vegetarian restaurants out in Virginia. He wanted to cut down on meat to help global warming and improve his health.
Maybe environmentalists have “don’t tell me my job” ego / moral superiority issues making them change over a bit more slowly than ordinary people who aren’t invested in the issue.
Hey thanks for the mention!! I guess one of the things that’s frustrating to me is that I know I’m not always logical, and I know I’m stubborn and reluctant to change, and even so I got the connection and stopped eating animals years ago, even before the UN study. But don’t worry–the rant on my blog does not reflect how I speak to people in person about the vegan-environmental stuff. I do try to not be threatening and introduce it softly. I think it’s about repetition too. They hear it from me, they blow it off, they read it in a magazine, but manage to ignore, and then it’s on tv and maybe it sinks in a little…
We all like to think we are rational, open minded and progressive than the next guy or gal. I’m not beyond by bailiwick, and neither are most people.
Logic and evidence are a big part of things, but still only part. The other is learning to get emotional momentum and even plain old habit to shift direction.
You read “Livestock’s Long Shadow”? What did the “UN” say about veganism?
Haven’t heard of it. Thanks for the info
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm