Veganism: the Future of an Illusion.

This is the book that resulted from eight years of discussions on Youtube, where Eisel Mazard was the voice of à-bas-le-ciel, criticizing veganism from within, eventually reaching six million views with his jarring portrayal of the vegan movement as a deeply corrupt and dishonest failure. Published at a time when most of the leaders of the movement were celebrating its seeming success, "Veganism: the Future of an Illusion" offers an analysis of the psychological and philosophical reasons for its ongoing failure, contrasted to a positive model for the life of a dissident intellectual pursuing unpopular political change. Daydreams of a vegan majority future have distracted leaders and followers alike from taking the action necessary to make a positive difference in the world while continuing to lead a meaningful life --a life that is not ruined by activism itself. The new strategy reflects an honest admission that vegans will remain a despised and internally divided minority for the century ahead, rather than pretending that we will imminently witness the esoteric ethical assumptions contested within the movement becoming the dominant cultural norm. Being right or wrong is irrelevant to the personal and political struggle ahead: atheists have been right for a thousand years and nevertheless remain a powerless minority today, although not nearly so powerless as vegans. The preoccupation with "being right" is itself a losing strategy: we need to learn to win within the context of a culture that will always regard us as wrong, no matter how many scientific studies (under the headings of health, ecology, or the social sciences) may prove us right. Science will not transform society: we will. Veganism will not transform society: we will. We need to understand our own powerlessness in attempting that transformation in order to find new roads to power, discarding the phony populism of political leaders who pander to the fantasy that veganism will eventually become powerful simply because it's right. The future belongs to those who are willing to be wrong and, therefore, the future of veganism is an illusion.