Brass Tacks: Authority in Vegan Organizations.

hey guys this is a late night video
chorded in the punishing summer heat after midnight it's past midnight but it still go very hot and very humid here in the home on the border between China and Myanmar got a letter from a supporter on patreon I just want to say really briefly this video was going to be in reply to that letter I do appreciate the support and the feedback conversations again through patreon I appreciate the intellectual stimulation I get by interacting with patreon supporters feedback I get ideas for new videos letters like this one that I reply to and also fundamentally yes the donation one one dollar per month each person each person just contributes window of month without that I would devote much less time to making videos on YouTube so I appreciate that the most obvious sense thank you guys for donations thank you for support without you in many ways this channel would not exist but in some ways it would that's sort of another time this letter fundamentally is asking about political leadership in veganism and the difficulty of supporting a particular organization given who the leader is I will read some parts of the letter and I will reply to that I have a background of scholar of Buddhism very often when you're doing research in Buddhism you have to explain to people and not just once maybe not just twice you have to explain again and again the doing research into a particular Buddhist temple into a particular Buddhist community or a particular Buddhist tradition let's say does not mean that you're an adherent it does not mean that you're a supporter it means that you're doing research it means that you want to learn from that experience that precedent that example and if you're a good researcher if you're actually unbiased engaged in original research you're not just a cult flunky pretending to be an academic if you have a lot of impetus studies you've got a terrible research horrible advisors research but if you're doing legitimate research and Buddhism very often to explain to people hey I'm here to look at the good and the bad I'm here to look at the ways in which this organization is a success I'm going to look at the ways in which is a failure I'm here to look at the whole picture and see what I can learn from it probably to apply to other circumstances now this experience prepares me for the difficulty the awkwardness and veganism of explain to people look I'm the kind of guy who actually does download and read the annual financial report from Petta People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals am I going to donate money to petaa no am i adherent am i a believer no in the same way that i think it's really important for researchers to evaluate analyze etc a given buddhist institution i think it's really important for us as vegans the movement progresses to look at those precedents to look at those examples look at where the money comes from and where it goes in what ways they're successful always their failures to the best of our ability we don't have that many examples to learn from and Etta people physical treatment animals is a major major example so even if you hate Etta it would be great if you can set aside that hatred and really try to learn from what their example has to teach us why would I do that well for one thing it's crucial if you want to your own cost projections it's crucial if you want your own feasibility study so I just wrote within the last few days to an organization called go vegan world go vegan world they're mostly known for advertising campaigns in Europe big posters billboards you know paid advertising human it's supportive of veganism and they have managed to bankroll that through the donations it's a very interesting precedent I don't know enough about them to tell you whether or not I believe in them whether or not support them whether I become an adherent or become a donor so I don't I genuinely don't know enough of their organization etc but that's a precedent that's an example I want to study I want to learn from and for sure you know again well let's say you're living in Canada or let's say you're living in Pittsburgh or if you're living and you wonder could we do something like that could we do something with similar impact could we get organized and do fundraising I have some similar outcomes well it's it's crucial to be able to look at comparable examples break down the costs ultimately construct a feasibility study financial projections how much will it cost how sustainable is if you wanted to take that for one year or five years what's it going to take and what difference is it going to make the input and the outcomes it's crucial but the fact that I research credit that way doesn't mean I'm a blind follower of peda the fact that I want to research in other positions for instance direct action everywhere that way and learn from their experience learn from that precedent learn from both their successes and their failures both those goods made of course I'm not a supporter of direct action everywhere most you guys watching this flow already be aware that I have a playlist with different critiques of different aspects of Detroit in general but of course in some ways there are success and there are important aspects of their success also WLAN so although that haven't been said I have this letter from patreon supporter and he is living in Greece he writes that there is an organization in Greece with real potential and it's called the vegan Union he gives me the name in Greek of course the leader of this group engages in genuinely political thinking activism she has written letters to governor's about fur she wrote another letter to a newspaper that published an article claiming that vegans are insane or mentally ill so she's taking on a role of championing the vegan cause in the mainstream press there and in mainstream politics electoral politics ultimately so he comments this role that the leader of this group is playing reminded me of the things we've discussed in your own video creating a parallel to the future of the vegan movement and the past of gay rights organizations particularly rights organizations they can so the video is a living - is my vegan manifesto you can find that in a playlist section of this channel but yeah my vegan manifesto title is on community it breaks down and discusses those issues that he's alluding to all right however the leader of this group he's found out some disturbing things about her political views alien just leave it that he's leery of her political views as she's expressed them on the record publicly she likes to treat racism sexism and speciesism under one banner she speaks in terms of social justice and an intersectional approach to veganism she engages in activism along the lines of shining herself by the neck in a public square protesting topless etc so not his cup of tea she yeah and there are other examples here for kind of demonizing white males engaging in I guess you'd say stereotypical social justice warrior rhetoric different things that raise red flags for Adam races is concerned okay so she's also involved in organizing festivals in both Athens and Thessaloniki so very positive and the person writing to me hopes that despite these differences despite these concerns these things that raise an eyebrow frame he hopes is someone he can collaborate with that's his word is collaborate with okay so he asked what my opinion would be because I've spoken in other videos about putting your differences aside for the sake of the future of the movement but um he's very concerned the difference between his idea of effective activism and her idea effective activism will make any kind of collaboration impossible okay so I want to come back into her collaboration here's the problem do you really think I can collaborate with a bunch of Buddhist monks who have their own temple even if I do the fundraising even if I'm paying the bills do you think I can collaborate with them no it's a relationship of authority of command command given a command receipt which can be quite scary for people to deal with it means is not the secular world we're talking about this is religious authority and religious politics it's a very very different world I knew one woman I know many examples of this but there's one in particular thing on I knew one woman she did all the fundraising for a Buddhist temple in Canada and in the end she was heartbroken it was over years so fundraising especially in the Chinese community and the monks running this temple they sure wanted that money and they sure would tell you whatever you want here to get the money at your pocket but then once they had the money and once they finished building the temple and everything they would refuse very simple requests for her for example she wanted to take a group of schoolchildren on a tour of the Buddhist temple and give them some lectures about the history of Buddhism educational outreach project and monks refused now it may sound like a small thing which you lose heart program well it's not a collaboration it's not they are in charge they give orders and you take them and you may be a donor and yeah you may be a scholar and you may be in for munch and all kinds other feeders but they're in charge and the inequality between you is absolute and they don't even have to answer your questions right could I ever support direct action everywhere having done a fair bit of research on including talking to former members you know verbal communication with thee who know inside information about how the organization operates and of course looking at their videos and reading your articles you know direct action everywhere is a precedent in the history of the beacon movement I want to learn from one one from what their success and their failures the Goodman benefit ultimately there's no way I could ever become an adherent I could ever become a supporter or here room a donor of direct action everywhere because of one man and that one man is Wayne cm I've read his articles and I really think he's an idiot his articles are astoundingly poorly written astoundingly poorly reasoned and I do also disagree with them you know very fundamentally in many ways you can see videos on this channel already discussing that the Direct Action Network playlist the founding director of the FBI this is an American term the FBI is an important organization in American politics the founding director of the FBI said an organization ultimately is the shadow of just one man he said that many many times not just once he said it when he was giving training and motivational lectures to new recruits apparently it's tragic to face up to that it's tragic to face up to the extent to which a Buddhist temple is the shadow of just one man most the time there's one charismatic bunk who's the leader of all the other monks who has all the authority was all the power and everything about that institution good bad is going to reflect the temperament and intellectual interest and decisions of that one man and a huge organization like the FBI can be the same way too for good and and bad there probably is an upper limit to it but for sure an organization the size of direct action everywhere is in many ways the shadow of just one man there's no way to extricate what direct action everywhere is and its future potential from the personality and political beliefs and even rhetorical style of one man wins young and that's why I can study them I can do research I can learn from that president act and learn from their example but I could never be their adherent I could never be their follower that could never be their support and I would guess that you're in a similar situation with this group you asked the question can you collaborate with her that assumes the sort of equality that I think you were going to find totally lacking in this situation even if it is just because she has already created that institution she is already the head of that history she is the self-appointed dictator for life I assume they don't have elections I assume there's no possibility of changing first I assume maybe a mom with these small charities very often it's one person maybe a married couple maybe a boyfriend and girlfriend a very small group of people who are going to influence everything about the institution and if you come in too late if you're not there at the founding meeting then you'll never be able to collaborate them real collaboration is incredibly difficult even for artists even for painters even for people in the theater it's amazing how rare it is to have true collaboration a relationship between equals instead most the time what you have is one person controls the money one person is in a position of authority and everyone else just coax that's the sad fact so his letter goes on to say I would love to get on board and start organizing something from meetups vegan events get-togethers try to stay positive for the movement chosen positive for the community as a whole he asks why can why can Christian so easily have that and we can good question question has many time Christians are resigned to to they accept the explicit relationship of authority the pastor and the flock it's done by the Catholic Church whole structure of authority and everyone involved is assenting to and are committed to a very contractual relationship of leader to follower that is in no way comparable to what we have going on within veganism now or what we're led without in the future on the contrary even in your writing this message to me you are presuming that this woman's position of leadership is in contention you're presuming that you can come in and get involved with her organization as an equal as a collaborator and then you could negotiate with her or change her political beliefs you wouldn't walk into a church and say well who's the pastor here well he's a problem but maybe he can change maybe I can just walk into this church and change the political beliefs of the pastor the nature of the APB outreach and charity work the discharge shows that you could come in as a collaborator at the top and that's also why these people are likely to treat you with hostility you don't realize it because what you're trying to do is positive but from their perspective what you're trying to do is hostile and morally wrong it would be the same thing if I got involved with direct action everywhere and I was trying to change their organization from the inside out or from the top down I don't have that right I can be a critic I can be an observer I can be a researcher I can be an analyst I can offer my thoughts I can try to learn from their example but actually I would be doing something immoral if I was getting involved in an organization and confronting Wayne Siong and challenging his leadership he created that organization he created the rules it functions by and in a sense I'm respecting him just by keeping my distance I would not want to lead a mutiny within the wreckage anymore and I'm not joking when I say this to you even though your attitude is totally positive Chinese and positive in the future I'm writing this letter to me your attitude is actually radically incompatible with what it would take to become a follower and adherent a donor a supporter in this woman's vegan organization in Athens and that's what she's looking for she's not looking for a collaborator she's not looking for someone to come in and challenge her political beliefs her chosen methods her paradigm effective activism and when you show up and that is who you are and that is how you act that is how you talk she is almost certainly going to respond with absolute hostility even if you are literally donating money even if you were literally donating so much money that you're building her Buddhist temple that you're paying her bills because you'll be a threat to everything she believes in everything she works hard to create explicitly and implicitly the reasons why that Institute now exists