Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Reviews of The Accidental Activist

Thanks to everyone who has put up a review of The Accidental Activist at Amazon! (And everyone who blurbed the manuscript.)

Some of my favorite lines from the Amazon reviews:

If you care about and want to reduce animal suffering, this wonderful collection of essays by Matt Ball, eloquent and beloved cofounder of Vegan Outreach is for you!

In the animal protection movement, it is common to say that anything one does to help animals is good. Matt and Anne were brave enough to point out that helping more animals is better than helping less animals. My confidence in their leadership was bolstered by their integrity and honesty, they spoke hard truths and faced losses because of it.

Matt's reasoned, eloquent focus on having the biggest possible impact with the greatest possible efficiency has resonated with tens of thousands of individuals, and created fundamental, pragmatic change on every level of the movement.

All activists share a common goal: to reduce suffering. But how can we become inspired to get active and even then, how can we reach our greatest potential in reducing suffering? The answers are in this book!

Matt Ball is an insightful thinker and pragmatic doer when it comes to animal protection work. He doesn't pretend to have all the answers, and readily admits mistakes he made in his early years as an animal activist. Fortunately, today's animal advocates have the benefit of learning from those mistakes and ensuring that we don't repeat them, since he and Anne Green have compiled them into this very useful book.

This is one of those magical books that get us to contemplate and examine our activism and then get moving to bring the vegan revolution to full fruition, and help as many as possible adopt the beautiful life, and reduce as much horrific suffering as possible. Matt Ball's writing has had a big impact on me and I'm sure his writing will on you as well!

In a showing of humility rare amongst thought leaders, particularly in animal protection, Matt shares mistakes made in his past efforts for animals and demonstrates a rare ability to pay attention to the negative data, the uncomfortable misfires most of us in animal protection would rather ignore than learn from. A courageous and honest analyst, Matt delves into unintended consequences of well intended efforts, always keeping the focus on the goal of advocacy of maximal impact.




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