Get Worse

It's counterintuitive, but necessary.

I’ve attended – and given – so many vegan presentations, it’s rare that I hear anything I haven’t heard – or said – before.

But a few weeks ago, while in the audience at a local university, I heard the presenter express an idea that had me digging into my backpack for a Q-tip. I felt a sudden urge to clean the wax from my ears, because what he said struck me as so counterintuitive, so countercultural, I assumed I must have misheard him.

It turns out, I heard him right. And the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

The speaker, Faraz Harsini, had just shown the audience some gruesome photos from slaughterhouses and animal farms when he said:

“It’s important to get worse.”

Get worse? What kind of advice is that? Aren’t we all trying to get better, get healthier, think positively, and become more productive and more effective?

Well, it’s actually good advice, if you want to keep your fires burning as a vegan activist.

Here is what Harsini means: We have to live with the knowledge that animals are suffering terribly. Once we have been exposed to even a fraction of the torture, bloodshed and torment in animal agriculture, we have to resist the temptation to purge it from our consciousness. We need to keep the suffering in our hearts and minds, and use it as fuel to educate others.

This is our burden. This is one of the most difficult aspects of living as a vegan in a meat-eating world.

I’m under no illusions about the consequences. Getting worse is not great for our mental health. But if the alternative is to live in denial and to remain silent in the presence of suffering, what choice do we really have?

I imagine there are probably very few psychotherapists out there who are advising their patients to get worse. And you won’t see a book titled “Get Worse” in the self-help section of your local bookstore.

But, by definition, being a vegan activist is not a selfish undertaking. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about the animals. Period.

I feel confident that if cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and fishes could speak English, they would be joining Harsini in urging us to get worse.

Harsini is the founder of Allied Scholars for Animal Protection, a nonprofit organization that conducts vegan advocacy and organizes vegan activists on college campuses.

I wish him much success, because he is working with the generation that is most receptive to our message. For this reason, PETA, my employer, directs significant resources at the college level, and to outreach to high-school students and younger children as well.

Kids these days, whatever their warts, have grown up faster than we did. At a young age, they learn that the older generation has made a mess of things. They won’t be shocked to learn that “Happy Meals” are anything but.

The younger generation can get worse, as long as they know it’s just a starting point to making things better.