People often debate the most effective ways of effecting change. Some say you need to change laws, some say you need to get corporations to change, some say that protesting and activism is the way to go, and some say inspiring people directly is the way to go. And, they’re all correct. I’ve always used the phrase “you have to get on every train leaving the station” to effect any type of change meaning that it requires a multifaceted approach on many fronts.
Much is written about the methods of effecting change with the exception of inspiring people directly. I worry therefore that this might leave some to question the efficacy of the personal approach. I’d therefore like to share my experiences with the personal approach.
I became vegetarian 37 years ago inspired by the woman I’ve now spent the rest of my life with. I was impressed by her ethnical vegetarianism, including not wearing leather and not buying products from companies that tested products on animals. We then had four children who grew up vegetarian. On a vacation in California in December 2014, our middle son drew our attention to the volume of activist videos showing the evils of the egg and diary industry and asked the question, “why aren’t we vegan?” to which none of us had a good answer other than “we should be!” We lived all those prior years oblivious to the suffering and death we were causing and thinking that veganism was too extreme. When we woke up to the reality, the whole family went vegan. And, that also included the partners of our now adult sons and daughter, a total of nine people. We haven’t looked back. And, it’s a delight to know that the people you care about the most, your family, are ethical vegans.
You also have other people whom you care about, your good friends. I have a number of friends that I get together with periodically. I have some older friends who are just too old to change so I didn’t waste any effort on inspiring them. Don’t get me wrong, I think older people can change. I did, and I’m an older person. Some older people are young at heart which I believe I am. They’re worth spending time with to get them to change. I have younger fiends who I take out to dinner when I’m in town (back when we traveled). Of course, if I’m paying for a meal it has to be vegan. I initially heard complaints like, “Karel, you know I could never go vegan”. In fact, the first good friend that said that to me inspired the name of this website. She has subsequently become a staunch ethical vegan. And she wasn’t the last, many others have either completely gone vegan or are still transitioning with this form of inspiration.
In addition to family and close friends, there are also the other people we connect with on social media, some of whom we’ve met in person and others we’ve only ever known digitally. They’re important too. The profession I’m in and the various parts of my design director role responsible for design leadership and academic programs connects me to many, many people. And, many of those people connect with me digitally on social media. My approach to those wonderful people is to share what I hope will be inspirational material to get them to consider and then become vegan. I make sure not exclusively focus on this topic nor on only one aspect of it. So, I post on a variety of topics, from design to politics, to what I’m doing. My vegan posts try to inspire by showing delicious vegan food including non-animal meat products to show you can eat the same thing you’re eating now but plant-based. I also throw in pics of animals that reinforce how wonderful, beautiful, and sentient they are but I also include the occasional shocking pics of what eating meat inflicts on innocent animals. I throw in the health benefits including the incredible improvement in my blood work due to veganism. And I of course also mention the positive environmental and climate change benefits and even the fact that pandemics are caused by eating animals. Similar to the gratifying news about family members going vegan, my close friends going vegan, I’m also so pleased to hear news of my social media friends and followers going vegan. Many have gone vegan and have let me know that my posts were a significant contributor to their going vegan.
My objective in writing this post is for you to not discount personal inspiration as an effective way of effecting change.