Vegan Elitism? A Small Minority Seeking Political Change.
21 May 2016 [link youtube]
Advocacy itself involves elitism, of a kind.
Youtube Automatic Transcription
hey guys what up every few days it seems
somebody poses this question about veganism and elitism is veganism elitist in what ways is this a problem and it's peculiar to me that these are always posed in terms of cost and luxury and perhaps the image vegans portray of themselves on social media or otherwise and I think that's asking the wrong question and therefore coming up with the wrong answers there is another form of elitism that I think is really worth considering in reference to veganism what percentage of Americans were ever involved with the movement to try to make seatbelts mandatory in cars this may seem like a bizarre example but really it's not in American history you may or may not be familiar with this example the automotive industry the big car companies that were at the time very powerful corporations with connections to government and millions of millions of dollars they did not want to make seatbelts mandatory and other safety features and there was a popular political movement they had lawyers they had offices they had Civic civil society organizations who were lobbying government and giving interviews the news and carrying on trying to force these automotive manufacturers to install seatbelts and a number of other changes to cards it was a real political struggle I don't know if even one percent of Americans were involved with that struggle definitely not five percent and I don't even know what percentage of Americans cared about it like it did make that the nightly news every so often that struggle cut but it brought about real fundamental political change and really saved a significant number of lives there's an outcome in human blood and had other economic and ethical implications there is there is an ethical argument that in the United States you should have the freedom to buy a car with no seat belts thatthat's question of political freedom and that question was answered through a real political struggle and there is a very meaningful sense in which that struggle was carried on by an elite or elites plural all right it wasn't the common working man it wasn't the poorest of the poor wasn't the downtrodden farmers who rose up and have forced the automotive companies to install seatbelts yes I think if you look at the people involved there's one famous politician called Ralph Nader who became famous through that struggle to make seatbelts mandatory guess what it's an elite movement and it was completely effective now I'm not going to repeat examples I've already used in the channel like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and so on these are generally perceived as positive examples some are negative you can look at the history of prohibition in the United States if you're not from America you may not know the word prohibition is used to refer to alcohol being made illegal in the United States there was a period of history when alcohol was made illegal that wasn't just a law in the United States that was an amendment to the Constitution the most fundamental form of political change possible under the United States political system who did that was it the poorest of the poor was it ninety percent of the population was even five percent of the population an elite got organized influenced government and made tremendous sweeping political change these things happen so if you ask me is veganism elitist is there an elitist aspect to veganism I think the answer is yes but everyone is looking under the wrong rock the crucially important elitist aspect of veganism is precisely the fact that we do not need to convert a hundred percent of the population to bring about the changes were seeking we do even need to convert fifty percent actually we can have a huge impact with just five percent especially if those five percent are shall we say the right people okay now what do I mean by the right people it's shocking and it's horrifying but yeah there is an elitist aspect of that I mean the same sort of people who were capable of organizing a social movement to try to force car manufacturers to include safety belts the same type of people who in the past got organized and lobbied the government to have regulations against cigarettes safety warnings regulations on what ingredients are in cigarettes because some ingredients were added to make cigarettes more addictive etc etc all of those kinds of things now poor people can be involved in those movements the poor and the downtrodden the oppressed former homeless people like durianrider can be but yes you know very often those movements really do rely on that sort of people who are in a position to employ a lawyer or people who are lawyers themselves working pro bono oh it relies on donors it relies on advocates that's why we call it advocacy and organizing and elite like that can be much smaller than five percent of the population and in a democracy can have a tremendous impact on the population now I don't want this video to go on much longer but I just mentioned I am a an atheist I'm a nihilistic atheist but one thing that influences my thinking in this is actually my past experience with Buddhism I was a scholar of tera vaada Buddhism for many years there are videos about that I've written many articles the Internet including studying the ancient scripture language I was a real scholar I was not just some hippie who liked meditation or like yoga or anything else um in Buddhism one of the controversies that is both ancient and modern something you find in the philosophy but that people still talk about today you know other religions like Christianity often attacks Buddhism criticizes Buddhism by claiming that Buddhism is elitist and one of the things that's interesting about tera vaada Buddhism is that it's different Christians are very big on saying that Christianity is for everyone it's got to save everybody's soul they've got to go out and preach to people even if people are severely mentally [ __ ] Christians will try to get these mentally [ __ ] people to participate in the rituals and in some sense believe in this doctrine so they can be saved and their souls go to heaven and tear that a Buddhist whom we don't don't do that you know tera vaada Buddhism maybe especially the ancient texts there was a recognition you know this is a philosophy and it's not for everybody and it's not even going to help everybody and you know what exceptionally intelligent people exceptionally educated people and yes when you're talking about kings and princes exceptionally powerful people it's actually more important that they learn about this philosophy or that they learn about it first if this philosophy is going to have a future if it's going to survive and that is a difference from religions or social movements that focus endlessly on the poorest of the poor the downtrodden or on the masses in some abstract sense when people talk about the masses they think they mean everybody but they usually really mean nobody they talk about the masses but they're only talking about the tiny number of people who show up at left-wing political events this is the cartridge that should roll familiar with in life yes within my lifetime in the next ten years in the next 20 years elitism is a factor in veganism and it is partly a problem we do need to see a vegan outreach that focuses on helping the poor but before we can even get to that we have to be at the level of having organizations that can help the poor and that's where the Christians and the Buddhists beat the crap out of us there is no vegan foundation in the world today that can help the poor or that actually does and there are hundreds and thousands of Christian Buddhist even Muslim charities that really do reach out and help the poor if you want to help the poor you first got to be in that position to help yourself right it's possible I'll see that within my lifetime but obviously of people for the ethical treatment of animals they can't go out and feed the starving you know none of the vegan organizations can and the scale and organization and credibility and wealth you would need to have for a vegan organization that it's worth thinking about maybe it's worth dreaming about maybe it's worth planning for maybe we should make it happen but actually that type of outreach to the poorest of the poor you want to take sacks of rice to starving people in Southeast Asia and Africa and to bring vegan food to the game of international humanitarian aid wonderful that's a wonderful idea but before you get to that actually you're already dealing with the kind of elitism I've been describing because you first need to form the foundation you first need to do the fundraising etc etc before you can start doing that kind of outreach and aid right advocacy itself involves elitism of a kind
somebody poses this question about veganism and elitism is veganism elitist in what ways is this a problem and it's peculiar to me that these are always posed in terms of cost and luxury and perhaps the image vegans portray of themselves on social media or otherwise and I think that's asking the wrong question and therefore coming up with the wrong answers there is another form of elitism that I think is really worth considering in reference to veganism what percentage of Americans were ever involved with the movement to try to make seatbelts mandatory in cars this may seem like a bizarre example but really it's not in American history you may or may not be familiar with this example the automotive industry the big car companies that were at the time very powerful corporations with connections to government and millions of millions of dollars they did not want to make seatbelts mandatory and other safety features and there was a popular political movement they had lawyers they had offices they had Civic civil society organizations who were lobbying government and giving interviews the news and carrying on trying to force these automotive manufacturers to install seatbelts and a number of other changes to cards it was a real political struggle I don't know if even one percent of Americans were involved with that struggle definitely not five percent and I don't even know what percentage of Americans cared about it like it did make that the nightly news every so often that struggle cut but it brought about real fundamental political change and really saved a significant number of lives there's an outcome in human blood and had other economic and ethical implications there is there is an ethical argument that in the United States you should have the freedom to buy a car with no seat belts thatthat's question of political freedom and that question was answered through a real political struggle and there is a very meaningful sense in which that struggle was carried on by an elite or elites plural all right it wasn't the common working man it wasn't the poorest of the poor wasn't the downtrodden farmers who rose up and have forced the automotive companies to install seatbelts yes I think if you look at the people involved there's one famous politician called Ralph Nader who became famous through that struggle to make seatbelts mandatory guess what it's an elite movement and it was completely effective now I'm not going to repeat examples I've already used in the channel like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and so on these are generally perceived as positive examples some are negative you can look at the history of prohibition in the United States if you're not from America you may not know the word prohibition is used to refer to alcohol being made illegal in the United States there was a period of history when alcohol was made illegal that wasn't just a law in the United States that was an amendment to the Constitution the most fundamental form of political change possible under the United States political system who did that was it the poorest of the poor was it ninety percent of the population was even five percent of the population an elite got organized influenced government and made tremendous sweeping political change these things happen so if you ask me is veganism elitist is there an elitist aspect to veganism I think the answer is yes but everyone is looking under the wrong rock the crucially important elitist aspect of veganism is precisely the fact that we do not need to convert a hundred percent of the population to bring about the changes were seeking we do even need to convert fifty percent actually we can have a huge impact with just five percent especially if those five percent are shall we say the right people okay now what do I mean by the right people it's shocking and it's horrifying but yeah there is an elitist aspect of that I mean the same sort of people who were capable of organizing a social movement to try to force car manufacturers to include safety belts the same type of people who in the past got organized and lobbied the government to have regulations against cigarettes safety warnings regulations on what ingredients are in cigarettes because some ingredients were added to make cigarettes more addictive etc etc all of those kinds of things now poor people can be involved in those movements the poor and the downtrodden the oppressed former homeless people like durianrider can be but yes you know very often those movements really do rely on that sort of people who are in a position to employ a lawyer or people who are lawyers themselves working pro bono oh it relies on donors it relies on advocates that's why we call it advocacy and organizing and elite like that can be much smaller than five percent of the population and in a democracy can have a tremendous impact on the population now I don't want this video to go on much longer but I just mentioned I am a an atheist I'm a nihilistic atheist but one thing that influences my thinking in this is actually my past experience with Buddhism I was a scholar of tera vaada Buddhism for many years there are videos about that I've written many articles the Internet including studying the ancient scripture language I was a real scholar I was not just some hippie who liked meditation or like yoga or anything else um in Buddhism one of the controversies that is both ancient and modern something you find in the philosophy but that people still talk about today you know other religions like Christianity often attacks Buddhism criticizes Buddhism by claiming that Buddhism is elitist and one of the things that's interesting about tera vaada Buddhism is that it's different Christians are very big on saying that Christianity is for everyone it's got to save everybody's soul they've got to go out and preach to people even if people are severely mentally [ __ ] Christians will try to get these mentally [ __ ] people to participate in the rituals and in some sense believe in this doctrine so they can be saved and their souls go to heaven and tear that a Buddhist whom we don't don't do that you know tera vaada Buddhism maybe especially the ancient texts there was a recognition you know this is a philosophy and it's not for everybody and it's not even going to help everybody and you know what exceptionally intelligent people exceptionally educated people and yes when you're talking about kings and princes exceptionally powerful people it's actually more important that they learn about this philosophy or that they learn about it first if this philosophy is going to have a future if it's going to survive and that is a difference from religions or social movements that focus endlessly on the poorest of the poor the downtrodden or on the masses in some abstract sense when people talk about the masses they think they mean everybody but they usually really mean nobody they talk about the masses but they're only talking about the tiny number of people who show up at left-wing political events this is the cartridge that should roll familiar with in life yes within my lifetime in the next ten years in the next 20 years elitism is a factor in veganism and it is partly a problem we do need to see a vegan outreach that focuses on helping the poor but before we can even get to that we have to be at the level of having organizations that can help the poor and that's where the Christians and the Buddhists beat the crap out of us there is no vegan foundation in the world today that can help the poor or that actually does and there are hundreds and thousands of Christian Buddhist even Muslim charities that really do reach out and help the poor if you want to help the poor you first got to be in that position to help yourself right it's possible I'll see that within my lifetime but obviously of people for the ethical treatment of animals they can't go out and feed the starving you know none of the vegan organizations can and the scale and organization and credibility and wealth you would need to have for a vegan organization that it's worth thinking about maybe it's worth dreaming about maybe it's worth planning for maybe we should make it happen but actually that type of outreach to the poorest of the poor you want to take sacks of rice to starving people in Southeast Asia and Africa and to bring vegan food to the game of international humanitarian aid wonderful that's a wonderful idea but before you get to that actually you're already dealing with the kind of elitism I've been describing because you first need to form the foundation you first need to do the fundraising etc etc before you can start doing that kind of outreach and aid right advocacy itself involves elitism of a kind