I definitely agree that things could be wildly different if there was a massive cultural change. But as you point out the main question is whether it is doable. I think that the bulk of funding has not gone “only” towards lobbying efforts targeting companies and politicians. There is a lot of “society outreach” work done by existing EA organisations in order to effectively pressure these companies and politicians: like petitions, protests, media outreach etc. So I guess the contrast is not necessarily “corporations” vs. “culture” but rather it is “social change for an institutional short term goal” vs. “social change for an indeterminate long term goal”. I am more supportive of the former because it has better feedback loops and it is also a good test of figuring out what is really doable and choosing the right objectives proportional to our existing capabilities. I think it would be very unlikely that a qualified animal advocacy organisation would fail to generate enough social reaction to convince a retailer to adopt a better welfare standard but at the same time would succeed in generating enough social reaction to achieve transformative legislative progress.
I guess another problem is that “culture” is very complex and cannot be changed by a small number of actors. This can also explain relative scepticism of funders since they face a practical problem of finding individual giving opportunities—not just deciding the general approach like “culture” or “corporate work”. Their job would be much harder if they need to figure out and evaluate hundreds of different actors from different fields and backgrounds.
Thanks for the comment!
I definitely agree that things could be wildly different if there was a massive cultural change. But as you point out the main question is whether it is doable. I think that the bulk of funding has not gone “only” towards lobbying efforts targeting companies and politicians. There is a lot of “society outreach” work done by existing EA organisations in order to effectively pressure these companies and politicians: like petitions, protests, media outreach etc. So I guess the contrast is not necessarily “corporations” vs. “culture” but rather it is “social change for an institutional short term goal” vs. “social change for an indeterminate long term goal”. I am more supportive of the former because it has better feedback loops and it is also a good test of figuring out what is really doable and choosing the right objectives proportional to our existing capabilities. I think it would be very unlikely that a qualified animal advocacy organisation would fail to generate enough social reaction to convince a retailer to adopt a better welfare standard but at the same time would succeed in generating enough social reaction to achieve transformative legislative progress.
I guess another problem is that “culture” is very complex and cannot be changed by a small number of actors. This can also explain relative scepticism of funders since they face a practical problem of finding individual giving opportunities—not just deciding the general approach like “culture” or “corporate work”. Their job would be much harder if they need to figure out and evaluate hundreds of different actors from different fields and backgrounds.