Idealism vs. Incrementalism in the Animal Rights Movement

It has been an interesting two weeks in the group i organize with. We’ve kind of spent a lot of time discussing other Animal Rights Groups and i feel that we’ve really come a long way in learning to work together for the ultimate goal of animal liberation. A good point was made about different groups last night that i think warrants a little more discussion: Idealism vs. Incrementalism.

Idealism

The Animal Rights Groups that fall into this category fight tirelessly for total animal liberation and nothing else will work because that is what the animals deserve. They’ve suffered enough for us and taking baby steps isn’t really fair to them.

The good thing about this school of thought for animal liberation i think is that groups are fully aware of how much the animals suffer, and they will fight as long as it takes until all slaughterhouses are shut down. They maintain a verypositive attitude and feel that this is entirely possible.

Another good thing about the idealist school of thought is that they are not afraid to have people confront the atrocities that animals face day in and day out. Assimilating and going with the flow is not part of their agenda because as long as the animals suffer, they need to keep fighting.

The bad thing about idealism, which i feel encompasses all of the positive attributes above is that by being the radicalists of the animal rights movement, they get a lot off unwarranted ire from other animal rights groups and even vegans because they fear being associated with their brand of radicalism. They also don’t take into consideration that ; as annoying as it can be to hear it, different people are going to go vegan for different reasons. The radical brand of activism really doesn’t work for everybody, and that’s okay because i feel that’s when incrementalism comes into play.

Incrementalism

The incrementalists are the groups that advocate for for Humane changes such as no more cages and gestation crates. They’ll fight tirelessly for every small step along the way to get to the ultimate goal of animal liberation. They protest for their causes and fight for liberation.

The positive aspects from this school of thought is that the people fighting from this side are vegan, but they take a very realistic approach to animal liberation. Literally closing all slaughterhouses overnight isn’t going to happen. But you know what will? Getting laws passed to end gestation crates and banning cages for eggs. That is something that will happen in a day.

These are the groups that celebrate every step as a step in the right direction with Veganism being the end goal. They focus on education and outreach to give people all the information they need to make humane decisions and encourage everyone to do their best.

I think that this school of thought appeals to a great number of people because, I feel that it’s difficult for a lot of people to totally shift their paradigms regarding the personhood of nonhuman/ companion animals. Frankly not everyone will go vegan overnight, a lot of people feel more comfortable approaching it incrementally. For the incrementalist school of thought, that’s good enough. The journey towards Veganism isn’t nearly as important as the end goal of becoming and staying vegan.

The con of Incrementalism is that the animals are still suffering and going through the industrial agriculture machine. Sure, the cages are gone and the crates are obsolete, but the animals are still overcrowded in these factory farms.

It’s not ideal, but i think that for a lot of people, incrementalism is going to be the easiest and most comfortable route towards Veganism for people.

Where’s the Middle Ground?

I think it’s difficult from people from both schools to see eye to eye and to discover a common ground. Is there actually common ground with the groups? I think there are two important things we have to remember:

• Incrementalists and Idealists are still vegan. If Incrementalists weren’t vegan they’d be eating the “humane” meat and eggs. But they don’t, so we know they’re vegan.
• Both groups are aiming for total animal liberation. Just because we are traveling on different routes doesn’t mean our destination isn’t the same.

Final Thoughts

Everyone is going to go vegan for different reasons, and a complete societal paradigm shift will not happen overnight. We have to face that, it’s just not going to happen. But i feel that both groups need each other.

The idealists need the Incrementalists because when they shake things up, the idealists need the Incrementalists to follow up with positive reinforcement and education. They need the Incrementalists will push for laws in Congress to change things while the idealists continually force people to face the suffering these animals go through.

The incrementalists need the idealists because the idealists are radical enough to be the black sheep of the movement. They want to challenge peoples' paradigms of animal personhood. Without that, people wouldn’t be as aware of all the suffering the animals go through.