Selected articles from Arkangel No.8
Summer 1992
Contents:
Image
by Badger
Image, is all the general public seem to be concerned with.
What other reason would there be for their ceaseless appetite
for game shows full of happy middle-class people and colourful
commercials proclaiming the goodness of the animal abusing
multinational companies? Witness the success of burger chain
adverts and the immorality of "We are lucky cows" from a well
known butter commercial.
People do not want to see the truth behind the gloss that
is modern life. The animal rights movement has to address the
problem of image, if it is ever to succeed in bringing about
animal liberation.
When people watch demonstrations on television, all they
see are what they perceive to be hippies with nothing better
to do. They see a scruffy mass who are inconsistent in their
beliefs. I was at a demo recently and had the misfortune to be
behind a group of students who were all patting themselves on
the back for, as they saw it, saving the world. I then watched
these same students once back at the rally tucking into their
cheese and egg sandwiches. They were as much a part of the
systematic abuse and torture of animals as the people who were
calling them hippies.
Vegans in the movement need to lead by example and be
intelligent, thoughtful and enthusiastic about what they say
and about how they put themselves across.
Why do so many people in the movement have to be so damn
dull and depressing to talk to? Show people they can change if
only they put their minds to it, be friendly and outgoing and
people will warm to you and only then will they start to
listen and see the person inside and not be blinded by their
own bigotry !
I realise the subject matter of our cause is horrific and
does depress the mind, but if we convey only this image we
will just switch people off. We need to educate others in the
truth behind the mask of contented farm animals and show them
the real life horror that is the vivisection laboratory.
Who do the public see as the intellectual "leaders" of the
animal rights movement? Is it caring people who look after
unwanted animals in sanctuaries or others who risk
imprisonment in trying to liberate animals and damage the
animal abuse industry? No I don't think it is, I think they
believe the "leaders" who only come out of the woodwork now
and again to condemn the latest act of sabotage committed by
"misguided people who are damaging the movement", why do the
public believe these people, it isn't because they have
digested the facts and made a well informed judgement, the
only thing that they have considered is the image being
conveyed to them through the media. They see a nice cosy man
or woman who is no threat to their immoral lifestyles.
To have any hope of reaching these people, we must change
our method of presentation to one which they can relate
to.
|
