It could turn on a dime

The road to animal liberation might be shorter than you think

I am not often thought of as an optimist.

And that’s fair. I admit it: I’m dark. For the most part, I don’t think highly of humans. I am not bullish on the future. “Doomer” may be a bit strong — but honestly, not really that strong — as a way to describe me. But…. But…. But…

Unlike many, and I know this is hard for those who know me to believe, when it comes to animals, I think we could turn this around in an amazingly short amount of time. “This” meaning the absolute horror of what humans do to animals. Animal agribusiness, vivisection, hunting, breeding, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.  

And, I’m not talking about just a small part of it. I’m not talking about chipping away at it step by step, tiny welfare reform by tiny welfare reform, like banning foie gras or gestation crates.

I’m talking about the whole fucking thing.

I know that humanity’s reliance on animals’ bodies, alive and dead, is enormous. But it honestly wouldn’t be that hard. The groundwork has, by and large, been laid. We have the technology.  We have the food.  We have the science. We are poised to change everything.

Just think about how fast things change these days. Two weeks ago, Trump was a shoo-in.

Now think of how much people actually care about animals. Just think about how, if people allowed themselves to actually think and act on what they actually feel and believe, they would change everything.

Ok, I don’t actually believe this. I admit it. I’m just playing with the idea.

But now that I’ve started, a small part of me thinks, why not?

Because the fact is that most people actually care about animals. A lot. They really do. Do not forget that.

I know, I know; they don’t act like they do. They don’t even say they do, except for maybe when they’re referring to dogs and cats. Or some dogs and cats. But, clearly, really a lot of people would not do to animals what they are paying to have done to animals. Not in a million years.

Most people don’t doubt that animals are sentient (even if they don’t throw around that word the way activists tend to) or have emotions, or thoughts, or relationships, or lives that matter to them.

There’s just some weird block in between what they believe, what they feel, what they want, and what they pay for.

But if that block disappears, it’s game over.

We are often told that the explanation for this unbelievable disconnect between what people feel about animals and what they do, or pay others to do, is “cognitive dissonance.” If I understand it correctly, this means that when you believe two things that can’t exist at the same time — “I love animals, I love meat” — you bury one of them deep in your consciousness until it disappears.

But, and here is the key thing: it doesn’t actually disappear.

This theory of cognitive dissonance as an explanation for who people are can only get you so far. Then, at some point, it collapses, because most people — and this is coming from someone who lives and breathes cynicism about the human race —  are actually, really, not that stupid or useless

They — or at least some of them — realize, in their souls, that something is way off.  I really believe that. And because information about what happens on factory farms is more and more in people’s consciousness, the cognitive dissonance is being pushed to its limits. Beyond its limits. Beyond what people can bear.

I know, I know. You are saying, and you are right, that people think that animals aren’t important when there are so many human problems. So they put it out of their heads.

But here’s the thing: a lot of them, and that number is increasing, also know that they love animals. And they know that love is important. And they know that love is actually the most important thing there is. In fact, it’s the thing that makes life worth living.

The worst thing that is happening to animals isn’t that people don’t care about them. And it isn’t that people are completely unaware of what’s going on. It’s that what is happening to them is so bad that people can’t bear to acknowledge it.

But that is not psychologically sustainable. They will wake up. They will give in. As painful as it is to know, the point will come, and I don’t think that it is that far off, when they will be unable to sustain the willful ignorance and will allow themselves to come to see what is happening to animals.

Am I saying that we will be the winners? That animal activists will be the heroes? That we will be seen as the ones who realized the truth and said it first? Actually, no. Get over that.

Chances are, most people will continue to think that somehow, you have been wrong all along, and that they are actually the ones who figured this out. Some may even continue to hate you. They may never recognize that you were here first.

But who the hell cares? We are allies, not victims. What we care about is animals. What we fundamentally want is to stop what is happening to them and stop having to think about it all the time, and, instead, just live our lives.

And, then, maybe try to get people to wake up about climate change.