The Power of One: How One Vegan Changes the World

Aug 26, 2019

“I found in you what was lost in me, in a world so cold and empty.”
-Starset,
"Dark on Me"

A Dedication

This is dedicated to every person that ever said that I alone, or any other vegan, could never make a difference for the animals. That we were powerless compared to the massive corporations and government controlling everything. That there’s no point because the animals all die anyway to feed everyone else that isn’t vegan. After many years, this is my response to all of you, because I am making a difference every single day. What are you doing?

Life's A Puzzle

Although I am just one person, I am a tiny piece of the puzzle that is the world. And you can’t complete a puzzle without all the pieces. In fact, one of the most infuriating things is when you are missing the final few pieces. Every single one of us has a part in this finished puzzle. And the puzzle I want to create is one of a beautiful world full of vibrant life, but the puzzle we’re making right now is dark, lifeless, and cruel. Think of people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi who changed the world through nonviolence. They were just small pieces also, but they were pieces that completely changed the puzzle. That is the essence of veganism – we are a collection of random puzzle pieces strewn across the globe, but we are no longer blending into the murky, dark background of our surroundings. We are transforming those around us into beautiful pieces of light.

Vegans Are Literally Saving Lives. What Are Carnists Doing?

It’s easy to get bogged down and frustrated being vegan in a nonvegan world. But when you feel broken, remember how powerful you truly are. You are the strongest and greatest catalyst for change right now, and everything you do makes a difference. Maybe you don’t see it in yourself, but I do. And so does the world. Think of it this way: every day you’re battling against the status quo, refusing to be silent as others suffer, you save 1,100 gallons of water, 40 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forest, 20 pounds of CO2, and one animal’s life.[1] What are carnists doing? Maybe some are taking shorter showers or recycling some plastic bottles. But there is no battle they can win against veganism.

The excuse that you’re doing next to nothing by being vegan is completely false. The animals being trucked to the slaughterhouse right now may not know this, but there have been thousands, millions, of animals never born, mutilated, enslaved, tortured, and killed because of how you live. And if that doesn’t make you feel good, I can make it even better.

Gary Yourofsky's Influence on the Progression of Veganism

One of the most influential and powerful vegan activists to ever exist is Gary Yourofsky. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that he’s effective. His extensive online and in-person speeches and interviews changed the lives of thousands of people, and thusly even more animals. In large part due to him, 5-10% of Israel’s population is vegan.[2] They are far ahead of the curve in that respect. Obviously, we can’t all be Gary Yourofsky, but the potential is there for each of us to influence those around us. If you were to able to convince just one person to go vegan, think of how many thousands of animal lives they would be saving in the course of their life.

Cubes of Truth Are So Powerful

This is why having one-on-one conversations are essential to transforming the world. People can turn away from a slaughterhouse video. They can ignore a billboard on the road. But speaking to them, answering their questions, and debunking their misconceptions is the single most powerful tool in any vegan’s toolkit. It’s easy for someone to write off vegans as extremists, but when they’re face-to-face with you, especially when they’re watching the suffering of their victims, excuses fall away. Please, please, please watch this video from an American Cube of Truth; I was so moved by it that I was in tears by the end. There's nothing graphic - it's just a beautiful, life-altering conversation. (Ironically, the outreacher, Natasha from That Vegan Couple, went vegan after hearing Gary Yourofsky's famous speech.)

Vegans = Terrorists?

Unfortunately, the media understands how powerful the individual is, and they use that to target the vegan movement as extremists. There have been far too many biased stories about "vegan terrorists” attacking “innocent farmers." Clearly, they have no idea what they’re saying since our movement is founded upon principles of peace and equality. (I have lots of things to say about their use of language in these kinds of stories, but that’s something I’ll discuss more in next week's post.) They like to show imagery of a hoard of angry vegans invading some poor farmer’s property. The vegans yell and scream obscenities at the honest-working men and women, shoving cameras in their faces, and – worst of all – scaring their poor animals. It’s disgraceful.

Never, ever do they show the images of these terrified babies being ripped from their mothers or baby male chicks being ground up alive because they can’t lay eggs or the farmers mutilating their fragile little bodies to protect their profitability. Because that would be too extreme and shed light on their biased agenda - in fact, that kind of footage is blurred or otherwise censored when it does appear in the news. If it's too disturbing for us to see, why are we all still eating these products? Do I sound like a conspiracy theorist? Perhaps. If you think I do, maybe you haven’t seen the fake news stories being pumped out like through the milking machine that is our media.

Did Your Food Have A Name?

Two years ago, there was a story in the UK with the similar biased rhetoric usually used, but the topic of the story shed light on what I’m talking about today. I hear a lot of ridiculous stories about veganism, but this one stuck with me. The story goes that a girl bought some frozen nonvegan product at the store, brought it home, and was horrified to see a vegan activist’s sticker on it. The sticker had a picture of a cow with a bolt gun held over her terrified face, but even more powerful, the cow was given a name. The sticker said, “My name was Chloe, I wanted to live! Your ‘Personal Choice’ killed me! DON’T BUY IT!”[3]

Understandably, the girl who bought the package was disturbed to be confronted with and learning the name of (albeit made-up, as a cow like Chloe isn’t afforded the luxury of a name, but it still made the point) her victim.[3] It’s easy for a carnist to think that the steak they’re eating is a cow; it’s difficult for them to think that the steak they’re eating is Chloe. It’s akin to eating your neighbor’s dog, Max. Giving the animal a name makes it personal, which is why these animals are only given numbers on farms – it, for lack of a better word, dehumanizes them. It makes them mere cogs in a machine. Parts one, two, three, four, etc. instead of victims. They are no longer viewed as alive. Giving them a name makes people think about not what they’re eating, but who they’re eating.

What Inspires Me

I’m not sure if any of you are like me, but I seem to find vegan inspiration everywhere, usually when I’m not looking for it and in very surprising places. And a few months ago, I was watching something (about a topic you’ll hear about often if you continue to follow my blog) that was just too perfect to not include here. I’m a huge fan of BTS; not only their music but themselves as people. I find their work ethic, humility, and dedication to their fans truly inspiring and motivating. (If you've never heard of them, they're the largest boyband in the world, Korean or otherwise, and are breaking records set by other renowned artists like the Beatles.)

I was watching their “BTS Summer Package 2018,” which was a short trip they took to Saipan to take pictures and film fun things for fans to watch. At one point, the group split in two and one of the subgroups went to a SeaTouch. Basically, they got in the water with stingrays and got to pet them. I debated on skipping through this part, because I knew it would make me upset. Of course I don’t know for sure, but my swift investigation of this company leads me to believe that they are not a sanctuary. (It’s funny how many nonvegan businesses use cartoon images of smiling, happy animals to portray how good their animals are treated. Yeah, right, I’m sure the stingrays love random people holding them, petting them, and kissing them all day every day. But that is also a discussion for another day.) I chose not to skip it, hoping that I would hear how they rescue and rehabilitate marine creatures, but that didn’t happen.[4]

The Personalities of Fish

Anyway, the boys all enjoyed their time with the stingrays, learning their names and personalities, swimming around with them, and even kissing them. Even my cold heart warmed at their affection shown to the beautiful creatures, though I shouldn't be surprised since we all love animals. It’s unfortunate that the stingrays, though, are basically prisoners forced to do that with tourists every day. Afterward, one of the members said something striking. Though he didn’t think he ever had in the past, he didn’t think he could ever eat stingray in the future.[4] This proves to me that getting to know an animal, even for just a short time – even a fish, which humans have difficulty connecting with – forms such a powerful connection in one’s mind. (This in no way is an acceptance of BTS’ disgusting, nonvegan consumerism. Even though I care about them, I find the way they live abhorrent and disgraceful - just like most other musicians and celebrities - and their utter hypocrisy in regards to their mission of the Love Yourself series and Love Myself UNICEF campaign repulsive.)

Dudley

This reminded me of one of my own experiences at a farm animal sanctuary. If you’ve never been to one, I encourage you to go and to bring nonvegan friends and family with you. Getting to meet animals that have been saved from animal agriculture is one of the most amazing experiences a vegan can have. There was a cow saved by the Gentle Barn in Tennessee a few years ago named Dudley. When he was a baby, his foot got wrapped up in some wire, eventually falling off. The farmer didn’t have the money or resources to take care of the injury, so Dudley was left hobbling around on three legs and a stump until he was 11 months old, when he was rescued. He was taken to the University of Tennessee’s large animal hospital in Knoxville, and he was fixed up with a prosthetic foot, allowing him to finally learn to walk like a normal cow.

The new Gentle Barn location was set up nearby soon after. Beautiful Dudley became a local furry celebrity, inspiring many people to see cows as more than burgers. Unfortunately, he passed away in early 2018 at just a few years old due to an unrelated illness, but I was lucky enough to meet him before that. Though he was only one cow among several there, just one animal among several species there, he changed me. I had never met a cow in that kind of scenario before, as a vegan with one of the animals I was helping to save. It was profoundly impactful, and I will always be thankful to Dudley for simply existing as the beautiful being he was. That’s the power of one. The power to transform your entire perception of something to someone.