The politics of animal rights.

It seems that the animal rights movement is like a human body suffering from a flu.

Every organization is like an organ, theoretically and ultimately working together for the same cause but in the mean time doing all kinds of crazy shit to spite one another. In this flu-ish haze that is animal rights, organizations have a hard time working together on immediate things, and often keep each other from moving forward.

There needs to be some kind of Tylenol for the animal rights movement (non-animal-tested Tylenol, then)

- organizations have to be able to coexist. Public displays of hatred are unacceptable. Don't have to be buddy-buddy, or anything. In fact, it is much better to have several different organizations and groups because they all cater to different people and accomplish different things. But some basic manners need to be observed.

- organizations need better online social networking

- veg*n organizations need to recognize that their methods may vary from audience to audience

- everyone in the AR Movement has a different place on the grand spectrum of other social movements : if an individual refuses to normalize themselves for the cause, who are we to normalize them/force them to blend?

- Other things which will come up when I am less sleepy

en fait (in reality), what we need to realize is that no single activist is more successful than a group of activists. That said, we MUST educate ourselves adequately (and beyond) if we want an effective movement. We need people from all over -- politics studies, lit, sociology, photo, graphic design, media/journalism, etc. As much as we need people who are going to go hand-in-hand in the movement, we need people who know their shit.

And we NEED more people to study the veg*n movement as a whole. Absolutely. In the U.S. and abroad, to see how things are going, what methods and approaches are effective, and how we can recognize the optimism which the movement surely merits.

Look at civil rights and women's rights movements, for instance, and the similarities are undeniable. Seemingly radical at the time, women have the right to vote in many countries in the world... and soon that will be ANIMAL RIGHTS! Woo! I can't wait.

Things to Think About TODAY:

• How can I make the most impact on the movement RIGHT NOW?
• Do I have the right personal attitude for this (Am I sustaining myself)?
• Do I know enough about the things I believe in? (Can I learn more to help the cause?)
• Have I honed in and developed on any natural skills that I have[that can be useful for the movement]?
• Do i have an adequate vegan support network? (If not, how can I go about expanding my vegan friend network and resource network?
• Have I figured out what my own personal most effective medium of convincing people is?
• Most importantly: ... when is the last time I baked vegan cupcakes?