Democracy: the Opportunity for Non-Violent Change (vegan / vegans / veganism).
06 May 2016 [link youtube]
In this video I'm speaking with Adriane Gilbert, a vegan activist from Southern Ontario. At the time of the interview, she was 18 years old and had been vegan for less than a year. You can find her on instagram, here: https://www.instagram.com/adriane__gilbert/
Youtube Automatic Transcription
it's okay look let's see something
positive positively what I've just said is negative I've just said why you shouldn't get involved with extremism why you shouldn't get involved with terrorism why you shouldn't do illegal and violent acts what should you do you should appreciate that you're living in a democratic country even if it's a really crappy democratic country I think one of the questions we all got to deal with as we grow up is what does it mean to live in a democracy what are the opportunities living in a democracy what are the responsibilities living to Marcus what are the advantages as well as the disadvantages and that's something you don't learn in school in school they don't teach you how to go to City Hall and make a difference they don't they don't teach you any of that and you know you're probably totaling really vague like oh you know you're living in a special country because there's no civil war here with Isis you know there are no bombs like you know you have peace and democracy but what does democracy really mean what democracy really means is if you're a vegan and you want to change the world you have ways to do it other than violence you have some option and you know going to City Hall it can be crappy and draining and emotionally tough people at City Hall will say things to denigrate you and insult you and hurt your feelings they really will there are nasty aspects to local politics but you know ultimately we do have elections we do have freedom of speech we do have a free press and as crappy as democracy is in Canada because I dislike it I don't like I don't like the Canadian political system there actually are all these openings opportunities for you to make some positive happen and it's say something even more positive do you think the people who run Greenpeace are a bunch of geniuses I don't I think they're a bunch of idiots do you think the people who run People for the Ethical Treatment animals the Green Party what's another one that's right there are a couple of their organizations the Sierra Club you know foundations that deal with ecology or animal rights or this connect to them those people aren't geniuses but they know better than to to burn down a slaughterhouse they know better than to try to smash up a fur farm they're people who are making a positive difference and you can too i think you can do better you know I it does in recognizing that those people are kind of stupid you have to recognize the same time you know okay if we could get 10 smart people together we can do better than the Green Party we can do better than Greenpeace and that's not short term that's long term that's over ten years or what have you but that potential is there that hope is there and that is part of democracy fundamentally that's completely built on democracy when you are living in a dictatorship when i was living in laos there's a really small example any kind of political organization means you go to prison there was sorry i hope i hope this is a fun anecdote for you i knew a schoolteacher she was teaching English at a at a school in Laos and they decided to have a celebration for Earth Day you know this holiday earth day they had the kids get out their paints and paint pictures of trees ecological messages and write in English because it was the English class happy Earth Day save the Bears save the elephants this kind of thing the kids painted these and held them up and they walked from one school property to another school property the city carrying their school projects all put in prison for an illegal political protest I'm not joking they were put in prison the teacher was detained and interrogated the principal of the school was taken in deteriorated real talk that's dictatorship that's the difference between a democracy and dictatorship okay uh-huh they weren't they weren't even protesting they were literally carrying their school projects which was painting a poster about ecology from one place to another in Laos again louses a communist dictatorship they threatened to kill me they kicked me out of the country i had my own experience with politics there and i did I nevertheless did I did advocate for ecological change there in my small polite way I did try to make a positive difference in that country I knew a guy it's not worth saying how I know these people some people tried to form a club not political at all they tried to form a club for the owners of Volkswagen cars so I people on old secondhand Volkswagens in Laos they did not get the permission of the Communist Party they did not get the government's permission to form a club for Volkswagen thrown in prison thrown in prison for having a legal political organization okay so on a deep level when I talk about like understanding democracy and what it means to you what responsibilities what opportunities of course you can take it for granted because we're all raised to take it for granted were raised with a fundamentally kind of racist narrative of the superiority of the British Empire and of British culture and that everything in Canada is just wonderful because of British culture meanwhile don't look at First Nations don't look at you know that side of it don't look at the actual colonial history but this idea that just because we have a parliament everything in our society is better and it's almost the opposite because we have a parliament there is an onus on you there's an obligation on you to figure out for yourself how to make a pause the difference in the world democratically and for vegans there's good and bad that comes with it but i hope i really hope we can at least in the same sense that you know there used to be real political organizations about alcohol like Mothers Against Drunk drunk driving at one time that was no joke people getting politically organized try to discourage alcoholism and drunk driving like back in the 1980s that was still a big issue because the government didn't really care that much about drunk driving and they had a whole series of legal changes related to drunk driving alcohol there were actually yeah sure Hume to my high school every year ins in a presentation right so why doesn't have that exists for veganism because we suck no seriously so that's a good example mothers against drunk driving and the passengers could say there were also organizations like that for about cigarettes about trying to get the government to change its rules and cigarettes I always say that I think mothers against drunk driving the reason why they're less impressive today is that they want like now the government is completely against drunk driving and all the legal changes they want it got made they won so now they can shut up and that's also something we don't think about as vegans we haven't even thought through the possibility of winning but in a Democratic Society when you win then the struggle is over you don't have to have organizations that are against slavery forever you don't have to have you know like protests on the street about drunk driving forever you can form an organization that achieves its goals in Parliament and does things like visiting school kids to give them lectures about drunk driving sure Mothers Against Drunk Driving there are a success story but they also get to fade out they become less important because they've succeeded yeah maybe two hundred years from now for me
positive positively what I've just said is negative I've just said why you shouldn't get involved with extremism why you shouldn't get involved with terrorism why you shouldn't do illegal and violent acts what should you do you should appreciate that you're living in a democratic country even if it's a really crappy democratic country I think one of the questions we all got to deal with as we grow up is what does it mean to live in a democracy what are the opportunities living in a democracy what are the responsibilities living to Marcus what are the advantages as well as the disadvantages and that's something you don't learn in school in school they don't teach you how to go to City Hall and make a difference they don't they don't teach you any of that and you know you're probably totaling really vague like oh you know you're living in a special country because there's no civil war here with Isis you know there are no bombs like you know you have peace and democracy but what does democracy really mean what democracy really means is if you're a vegan and you want to change the world you have ways to do it other than violence you have some option and you know going to City Hall it can be crappy and draining and emotionally tough people at City Hall will say things to denigrate you and insult you and hurt your feelings they really will there are nasty aspects to local politics but you know ultimately we do have elections we do have freedom of speech we do have a free press and as crappy as democracy is in Canada because I dislike it I don't like I don't like the Canadian political system there actually are all these openings opportunities for you to make some positive happen and it's say something even more positive do you think the people who run Greenpeace are a bunch of geniuses I don't I think they're a bunch of idiots do you think the people who run People for the Ethical Treatment animals the Green Party what's another one that's right there are a couple of their organizations the Sierra Club you know foundations that deal with ecology or animal rights or this connect to them those people aren't geniuses but they know better than to to burn down a slaughterhouse they know better than to try to smash up a fur farm they're people who are making a positive difference and you can too i think you can do better you know I it does in recognizing that those people are kind of stupid you have to recognize the same time you know okay if we could get 10 smart people together we can do better than the Green Party we can do better than Greenpeace and that's not short term that's long term that's over ten years or what have you but that potential is there that hope is there and that is part of democracy fundamentally that's completely built on democracy when you are living in a dictatorship when i was living in laos there's a really small example any kind of political organization means you go to prison there was sorry i hope i hope this is a fun anecdote for you i knew a schoolteacher she was teaching English at a at a school in Laos and they decided to have a celebration for Earth Day you know this holiday earth day they had the kids get out their paints and paint pictures of trees ecological messages and write in English because it was the English class happy Earth Day save the Bears save the elephants this kind of thing the kids painted these and held them up and they walked from one school property to another school property the city carrying their school projects all put in prison for an illegal political protest I'm not joking they were put in prison the teacher was detained and interrogated the principal of the school was taken in deteriorated real talk that's dictatorship that's the difference between a democracy and dictatorship okay uh-huh they weren't they weren't even protesting they were literally carrying their school projects which was painting a poster about ecology from one place to another in Laos again louses a communist dictatorship they threatened to kill me they kicked me out of the country i had my own experience with politics there and i did I nevertheless did I did advocate for ecological change there in my small polite way I did try to make a positive difference in that country I knew a guy it's not worth saying how I know these people some people tried to form a club not political at all they tried to form a club for the owners of Volkswagen cars so I people on old secondhand Volkswagens in Laos they did not get the permission of the Communist Party they did not get the government's permission to form a club for Volkswagen thrown in prison thrown in prison for having a legal political organization okay so on a deep level when I talk about like understanding democracy and what it means to you what responsibilities what opportunities of course you can take it for granted because we're all raised to take it for granted were raised with a fundamentally kind of racist narrative of the superiority of the British Empire and of British culture and that everything in Canada is just wonderful because of British culture meanwhile don't look at First Nations don't look at you know that side of it don't look at the actual colonial history but this idea that just because we have a parliament everything in our society is better and it's almost the opposite because we have a parliament there is an onus on you there's an obligation on you to figure out for yourself how to make a pause the difference in the world democratically and for vegans there's good and bad that comes with it but i hope i really hope we can at least in the same sense that you know there used to be real political organizations about alcohol like Mothers Against Drunk drunk driving at one time that was no joke people getting politically organized try to discourage alcoholism and drunk driving like back in the 1980s that was still a big issue because the government didn't really care that much about drunk driving and they had a whole series of legal changes related to drunk driving alcohol there were actually yeah sure Hume to my high school every year ins in a presentation right so why doesn't have that exists for veganism because we suck no seriously so that's a good example mothers against drunk driving and the passengers could say there were also organizations like that for about cigarettes about trying to get the government to change its rules and cigarettes I always say that I think mothers against drunk driving the reason why they're less impressive today is that they want like now the government is completely against drunk driving and all the legal changes they want it got made they won so now they can shut up and that's also something we don't think about as vegans we haven't even thought through the possibility of winning but in a Democratic Society when you win then the struggle is over you don't have to have organizations that are against slavery forever you don't have to have you know like protests on the street about drunk driving forever you can form an organization that achieves its goals in Parliament and does things like visiting school kids to give them lectures about drunk driving sure Mothers Against Drunk Driving there are a success story but they also get to fade out they become less important because they've succeeded yeah maybe two hundred years from now for me