From time to time the Grumpy Vegan comes across articles and op eds about social movements other than the animal rights movements but nonetheless is equally applicable to it.
For example, Leo Hickman writing in The Guardian says
As ever, the debate and criticism starts when the alternatives to the status quo are presented. For the long period in which environmentalists were largely debating among themselves about the value and viability of each solution, it didn’t make much difference to wider society that doctrine and ideology often muddied and calcified such debates, because no one was listening. But now that these debates take place daily around the world, the principled stubbornness and over-my-dead-body positioning that used to characterise such discussions, understandably and rightly, is not being tolerated. Environmentalism is being forced to grow up: move beyond the moody idealism of its teenage years and towards the murky compromise and pragmatism that are the hallmarks of so-called mature politics.
Now, here’s another quote (edited for brevity–read the whole article) in which I replace references to the environmental movement with references to animal advocacy.
Whether animal advocates like it or not, they are being asked to accept some things many of them find particularly unpalatable, such as the barrage scheme Paul Kingsnorth decried on these pages this week. In particular, I’m thinking about issues such as nuclear power and genetically modified crops [“humane” meat, the three “Rs” in animal research, etc.]. But maintaining an open mind is surely part of the answer if winning over a sceptical public is the goal. Dogma is an unattractive trait whatever your political colours.
In addition, animal advocates are having to explain and explain again, with evident frustration, why the rest of the world should go along with their big ideas. You can almost hear them thinking aloud: “Why don’t they all get it yet? Don’t they realise the quagmire we’re all in?” Life as an animal advocate can lurch from extreme pessimism (the publication of yet another gloomy study) to exultant optimism (finally, a White House resident who seems to get it) within moments. But perhaps the greatest frustration is that, despite the overwhelming evidence of the clear and present danger before us all, there is still a widespread intransigence about acting in any meaningful way.
The animal rights movement needs to take stock of the huge advances it has made over the past decade or so in flagging up the problems, but now needs to reassess its presentation and listen to advice and criticism.
