The Animal Activist's Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today's World
Matt Ball, Bruce Friedrich, Foreword by Ingrid Newkirk

The Joy of a Meaningful Life

In Possessing the Secret of Joy, the writer Alice Walker suggests the secret of a joyful life is working against violence and oppression. Our experience supports this—we believe that happiness comes from positive accomplishment in the world; i.e., from successfully striving to make the world kinder and more just. In this book, we present activism as the way to a meaningful life, and we offer some reflections on how we can be more effective in our efforts.

Where to begin? There is a great deal of suffering and injustice in the world, and much of it is gratuitous, graphic, and stomach-turning. Sadly, the vast majority of the world's injustices are too constant to allow significant attention. Furthermore, most of these atrocities are well hidden from everyday view. The human psyche is not inclined to dwell on unseen unpleasantness. Some say that reality is too much for us, that our brains simply can't process just how bad things really are for so many—much less deal with the moral implication that this suffering has on how we lead our lives. Others point out that we evolved to deal with only a small circle of people, not vast issues.

If we can't really process and understand global suffering, how can we be expected to seriously work for change in a methodical, long-term way? Indeed, most of us don't do anything. Among those who do decide to take action, most are drawn to the urgent, to the extreme, or to the anomaly—pursuing campaigns where immediate change can be seen.

The inclination to ignore what's "bad," or to focus only on the immediate and familiar, is understandable, given basic psychology. History has shown that arguing against or trying to deny human nature is a fool's pursuit. But that doesn't mean we're condemned to simply follow the crowd. We believe there's a better way—one based not on a new diet, job, car, relationship, political party, religion, meditation, or crystals, but rather on an honest evaluation of our basic nature. By assessing the world as it is, we hope to show that a firm grounding in reality can lead to a new path, one that's both sustainable and fulfilling for us as human beings. It's not simple; it can be argued that inertia is the strongest force in human nature. Ultimately, however, it's worth embracing the challenge to walk this new path.

In this book, we offer practical suggestions and insights for anyone who wants to choose a meaningful life by working to make the world a better place. Having been involved in various causes over the years, we've made many discoveries—and even more mistakes. On these pages, we've attempted to provide the sum of our experience, so that activists won't need to make the same frustrating missteps, but can instead go directly into effective activism.

We recognize that many of the suggestions in the book are counterintuitive, and some you may find challenging—we certainly did! We ask only that you give these ideas open-minded consideration and thought. For reasons we explain in detail, our focus is on advocating for animals. Subsequently, we devote the majority of this book to animal advocacy, as well as tips for being an effective activist for that cause. However, most of the suggestions and tips could be easily applied to advocacy for other issues; if you're active in some other cause to make the world more just, we salute you and hope you'll find some useful insights on these pages.

In Chapter One, we discuss the reasons we feel advocacy leads to meaning in life, and lay out our first principles and subsequent reasons for choosing vegetarian advocacy. In Chapter Two, we discuss some general tips for all activists. Chapter Three contains specific strategies for animal activists. These topics are related to questions, concerns, and scenarios we've been exposed to as animal activists. In Chapter Four, we discuss some of our favorite activities for changing the world. In Chapter Five, we discuss why we believe animal liberation is not only possible, but inevitable, and why we should all choose to be a part of this work. In the appendices, we've included a few of our favorite resources, as well as specific questions regarding the "whys" of vegetarianism, the question of "humane meat," and a theory of ethics.

The most important ideas in this book are:

1. Happiness does not come from an easy or materially "rich" life. It comes from a thoughtful, meaningful life dedicated to changing the world for the better.
2. Given our limited time and resources, as well as our inherent biases, we should make our choices based on reducing as much suffering as possible, remembering that when we choose to do one thing, we're choosing not to do another.
3. Simply making the "right" choices for ourselves isn't enough. By effectively interacting with other people, we can make the impact of our lives exponentially greater.
4. Our lives should be an advertisement for a purpose-driven life.
5. We should be professional and have positive, thoughtful conversations with people, rather than monologues at them.
6. We should revel in the freedom and opportunity we have, the ability to be a part of something bigger, something fundamentally good.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [s]he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance . . . .

For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of [people] than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow [humans] alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.

Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live.

Anyone can become part of the critical mass that offers us a chance of improving the world before it is too late. You can rethink your goals and question what you are doing with your life . . . Most important of all, you will know that you have not lived and died for nothing, because you will have become part of the great tradition of those who have responded to the amount of pain and suffering in the universe by trying to make the world a better place.

The arc of history is long
And ragged
And often unclear
But ultimately
It bends towards justice.

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