Book Review: The Animal Activist’s Handbook!

The Animal Activist’s Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today’s World By Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich Lantern Books, March 2009 AnimalAdvocacyBook.com

“If you have picked this book up, good for you. It can only mean that you care about living a meaningful life, and what can beat that? Nothing!”
-  Ingrid Newkirk, from the Forward

In their new book, The Animal Activist’s Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today’s World, Vegan Outreach’s Executive Director Matt Ball and PeTA’s Vice President of Policy and Government affairs Bruce Friedrich set out to cover nothing short of the meaning of life, going all the way back to our evolutionary heritage. This audacious goal makes the book unlike any other book in an advocate’s library. However, this doesn’t mean Handbook is a philosophical treatise; indeed, it is the most practical book. As Ingrid Newkirk summarizes in the Forward:

When I wrote this foreword, I had just finished putting together One Can Make a Difference, a book of essays about people who have done exciting and positive things with their lives. Whether they are hugely famous—like the Dalai Lama, Paul McCartney, and Russell Simmons—or complete unknowns, every person I chose made the decision to put their voice, their talent, their values, their time, their freedom, their interests, and their heart to good use. The book you are holding in your hand now provides a practical “how to” guide to becoming one of those “ones.” If you haven’t bought it yet, do. If you have it, don’t forget to pass it on when you’ve read it so that someone else can be a success.

Handbook is concise and to-the-point. Ball and Friedrich don’t beat around the bush; they start right off with the Introduction’s first paragraph:

In Possessing the Secret of Joy, the writer Alice Walker suggeststhe secret of a joyful life is working against violence and oppression. Our experience supports this—we believe that happiness comes from positive accomplishmentin 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.

Many of the topics in the Introduction are ideas rarely considered, let alone used as the basis of one’s life work. Matt and Bruce don’t pretend all their prescriptions are easy:

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.

But they refuse to pull any punches, ending the Introduction with a call for each of us to be an integral part of history:

[T]o paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr.:
The arc of history is long
And ragged
And often unclear
But ultimately
It bends towards justice.

We can each choose to be a part of that progress.
We can be the ones who bend the arc, who change the world.
History is now—let’s get started!

A discussion of evolution and human nature leads to a straightforward derivation of ethics (an appendix gives a more complete discussion). This unusual construction provides the book a universal aspect, rather than appealing only to those already concerned with the treatment of animals. Indeed, Ball and Friedrich’s ultimate focus on the animals derives from their basic understanding of our evolutionary heritage and a rational pursuit of happiness – this is not a book written only for animal lovers. Throughout much of the first chapter, they show how the relatively abstract ideas of evolution and philosophy concretely connect to what our lives can be:

Once we recognize that suffering is fundamentally bad, and thus eliminating suffering is the ultimate good, we can each dedicate our life to reducing as much suffering as possible. [W]e can give up the futile pursuit of happiness, and, instead live our lives beyond ourselves, for what is truly important. We can transcend our genetic and cultural programming and experience the full potential of our humanity and the richness possible in our existence. From a rational, universal starting point, we can choose to author our life’s story, rather than following the narrative set for us by our genes and our culture. We can rise above the self-centered and immediate. We can be a part of something greater.

But this isn’t just a feel-good book that seeks to praise those who donate to charity or eat vegetarian – this is a call to action:

[A] complete ethic isn’t just about minimizing the bad impact we have in the world. The needed change isn’t simply personal. Although our decisions regarding what to eat and wear, what kind of car to drive, or for whom we should cast our vote are important, they’re not as important as our influence on others. That is our real impact on the world.

Think of it this way: If we buy only vegan food, or we vote for the candidate of our choice, or we buy only coffee, clothing, etc, that’s been produced fairly and responsibly, that’s one unit of goodness in that area. If, however, we advocate for our position, each person we influence to do the same thing will double the good that our choices cause! Once we have ten people on board, our impact on the world is ten times greater than the choices that we, personally, have made or that we will ever make! In just one day, with just one interaction, we can do as much good for the world with our influence as we can do with our personal decisions and choices over the course of our entire lives.

This isn’t a memoir, a membership drive, or a fundraising piece. Handbook really is a guide for any and every person who wants to make a real, significant difference in the world, regardless of their current situation:

To make the world better, we can—must—do much more than just make good, ethical choices ourselves. We can expose injustice, solicit kindness from others, and work for widespread change and the adoption of moral policies. Every person we meet is a potential major victory. Our power to change the world is much more than we imagine; our potential is mind-blowing!

We have no excuse for waiting. Living ethically—pursuing meaningful action toward a better world by alleviating and preventing suffering—doesn’t require any consensus. If we were the one suffering—imprisoned unjustly, enslaved with no rights, exploited because of our race or species—we wouldn’t want concerned, thoughtful people to put off taking action until the next election or until a large group endorsed our cause. We don’t have to change the government to change the world. We don’t have to start a group or organize a campaign. We can each act today and every day.

The bulk of the book is comprised of practical advice on how to maximize the impact everyone can achieve with our limited time and resources. Ball and Friedrich draw on their many decades of activism, as well as the lessons of hundreds of friends and colleagues. This advice is framed in a historical perspective:

If we look at the long arc of history, we see just how much society has advanced in just the last few centuries. It was over two thousand years ago that the ideals of democracy were first proposed in ancient Greece. But it was only during the eighteenth century that humanity saw the beginnings of a truly democratic system. Not until late in the nineteenth century was slavery officially abolished in the developed world. In all of human history, only in the last hundred years was child labor abolished in the developed word, child abuse criminalized, women given the vote, and minorities given more equal rights.

Prejudices we can hardly fathom today were completely accepted just decades ago. For example, if we read what was written and said about slavery—fewer than one hundred fifty years ago—the defenders were not just ignorant racists, but admired politicians, civic and religious leaders, and learned intellectuals. What is horrifying to us now was once respected. As the Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey puts it in Animal Theology:“[G]o back about two hundred or more years, we will find intelligent, respectable and conscientious Christians supporting, almost without question, the trade in slaves as inseparable from Christian civilization and human progress.” In other words, God said we could do it, we’ve always done it, it’s natural. Sound familiar?

And, knowing the ease with which an ethical person can succumb to frustration and despair, they step back and put today’s animal advocacy movement in perspective:

However slowly we may feel we’re progressing today, we’re advancing at lightning speed in comparison to past social justice movements. Just a short century ago, almost no animals received any protection whatsoever from abuse. Today the vast majority of people are opposed to cruelty to animals; this really is a significant accomplishment in and of itself! The discussion now must focus on helping people see that eating animals violates their own principles. This effort is only just beginning. If we look back twenty years, most animal advocacy in the U.S. was focused on fur and vivisection—important areas of horrible suffering, but not areas where each individual can have as much of an impact as they can by simply choosing and promoting vegetarianism.

Despite all the current horror and continued suffering, if we take the long view and are willing to commit to the work that needs to be done, we should be deeply optimistic. If we take suffering seriously and are committed to optimal advocacy, we can each create real, fundamental change. Animal liberation can be the future. As the magazine The Economist concluded, “Historically, man has expanded the reach of his ethical calculations, as ignorance and want have receded, first beyond family and tribe, later beyond religion, race, and nation. To bring other species more fully into the range of these decisions may seem unthinkable to moderate opinion now. One day, decades or centuries hence, it may seem no more than ‘civilized’ behavior requires.”

This sense of history, combined with the detailed, practical, and well-proven guidance Ball and Friedrich provide, ties back to their basic thesis – that being a focused, dedicated animal advocate is a means to a meaningful life:

Because of the number of individuals suffering and the reason behind this hidden brutality, we believe that animal liberation is the moral imperative of our time. We can be the generation that brings about the next great ethical advance. We should revel in the freedom and opportunity we have, the ability to be a part of something bigger, something fundamentally good. This is as meaningful and joyous a life as we can imagine!

In a way never before attempted, let alone accomplished, Ball and Friedrich provide the reasons, rationale, and tools for a meaningful life; it is now up to us:

We have no excuse for waiting. Taking action against suffering doesn’t require anything other than our choice. We can act today.

In the end, in our hearts, we know that, regardless of what we think of ourselves, our actions reveal the kind of person we really are. We each determine our life’s narrative. We can, like most, choose to allow the narrative to be imposed on us, mindlessly accept the current default, follow the crowd, and take whatever we can. Or we can choose to actively author our lives, determining for ourselves what is really important. We can choose to live with a larger purpose, dedicated to a better world for all. We can choose to be extraordinary!

The choice is fundamental. The choice is vital. And the choice is ours, today.