Effective advocacy... or how can we do it better?

[vegetus]

I've been involved in animal rights/welfare activism to varying degree's for most of my life (hmm... I am getting old). I've seen alot of effort and hard work put in by activists with great results, which is fantastic. I've also seen alot of effort put in with minimal results and whilst not every campaign will work as well as you wanted it to,

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Oh yes. In between options like free range eggs etc are good for people like me, who are not heavily committed to animal rights but would like to help out a bit. But there's a large gap between the level of ethical behaviour of your average person and that of a committed activist, and people in the middle can't get too smug or complacent since there's so much more we could be doing. It's a confusing place to be. I know I encounter a lot of people who think of themselves as "anti-racist" because they're a bit above average in terms of not telling racist jokes etc, and then get a nasty shock when they meet actual anti-racist activists and get criticised for all the racist things they still do.

The proto-feminist novel "The tenant at wildfell hall" actually has a "Don't beat your wife too often" message. I'm pretty sure the author (if she wasn't long dead :D) would agree that anyone who needed that message didn't get to count as being "pro women's rights" but given the attitudes at the time it was still a step in the right direction for your average guy. Similarly, given current attitudes, getting people to consider the ethics of the meat they eat is a step in the right direction, even if you'd hope for more from actual activists.