Does Anyone Want Abolitionist Literature?

I’m doing an informal survey regarding leaflets, pamphlets, and the like. I know there is ambivalence about what is available, and I was wondering if an abolitionist pamphlet would appeal to anyone. (And after I do this, I’m retiring The A-Word again.)

I’ve previously written that I had an abolitionist impulse and was a vegetarian prior to college (I didn’t stop eating products like muffins and scones, made with eggs or milk or butter). But when I got to college I was bombarded with Peter Singer and information about reducing suffering and cruelty, and my abolitionist limb atrophied and disappeared. I always wonder if things would have gone differently if I had been bombarded with abolitionist literature.

I’ve asked a handful of people already, and I was surprised to learn that 80% question the need and/or effectiveness of pamphlets in 2007. Perhaps something downloadable to phones or other hand helds would be more appropriate. Then there are the environmental concerns of all that paper and ink, and many of the pamphlets will end up in the garbage.

What do you think?

And here’s the clincher: I’m happy to design, write it, and give you a disk, but you’d print out what you need when you need them. (There’s no way I’m adding "pamphlet producer and distributor" to the myriad things I have to get done in a day. I wouldn’t want to promise something I don’t think I could deliver on.).

I have no idea what the length of the piece would be (although I don’t think it would be as long as the one available from Friends of Animals, which I like and has a lot of recipes, and that’s where the length comes from), but I can say that the content would be largely based on Gary Francione‘s theory, and he would look it over. I wouldn’t want to spend time to develop something that activists either don’t have a need for or wouldn’t use for other reasons. Maybe a pamphlet that included the health and environment reasons why we shouldn’t use animals would be more appropriate. I don’t know.

Finally, please ask your activist friends and take an informal survey of your own and get back to me. I know that I’m not a favorite in some circles, and some of my decisions have been, shall we say, unpopular, but try to look beyond that. Is this a good idea for you and the way you do your own activism? Is there a better, more appropriate medium for the average college student?

I appreciate any constructive advice.

Grazie mille.