Rupert's Read: "Utopias?: Changing the climate" Conference talk

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

"Utopias?: Changing the climate" Conference talk

Have a listen to my talk on 'Love or justice?' at a recent Conference in Australia, that I joined by audiolink (very very early in the morning, while still in my pajamas).
You have to listen closely, but its worth it! ;-) http://arts.monash.edu.au/ecps/assets/podcasts/2010-09-01t1432-read-care-love-and-our-responsibility-to-the-future-utopias-conference.mp3

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My favourite quotes

"Our leaders speak of tomorrow, while their dreams and those of their citizens, are shaped by the concepts, metaphors, logic and assumptions of yesteryear." - Ruben Nelson.
_Richard II_, Act 2, Scene I, by Will Shakespeare NORTHUMBERLAND Lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, Yet see no shelter to avoid the storm; We see the wind sit sore upon our sails, And yet we strike not, but securely perish. LORD ROSS We see the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger now, For suffering so the causes of our wreck. NORTHUMBERLAND Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death I spy life peering; but I dare not say How near the tidings of our comfort is.
"Bias for impartiality is as much a bias as is partisan prejudice, though it is a radically different quality of bias... One can see only from a certain standpoint, but this fact does not make all standpoints of equal value. A standpoint which is nowhere in particular and from which things are not seen at a special angle is an absurdity. But one may have affection for a standpoint which gives a rich and ordered landscape rather than for one from which things are seen confusedly and meagrely." John Dewey
The idea that there have to be prejudices/presuppositions behind every view/statement is itself the ultimate prejudice/presupposition. - Me.
"The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the 'mystique' of Socialism, is the idea of equality." - George Orwell, 'Homage to Catalonia'.
"The law doth punish man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But lets the greater felon loose Who steals the common from the goose" 18th Centruy Anti-Enclosure saying
Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. -- Milton Friedman
“Trickledown theory–the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road to the sparrows”: JK Galbraith
"The depression we're all trying to avoid could very well be a prolonged chronic reaction to what we've been doing to...nature and to cities and to whole peoples...partly because this is the soul's reaction to the mourning and grieving that we're not consciously doing." -- James Hillman, psychologist, author of "Soul's Code"
"Incompetence consists in wanting to reach conclusions" - Flaubert.
"I am embrangled in words; tis scarce possible it should be otherwise" - Berkeley.
"A party that cannot gain power without a big share of the working-class and lower middle-classes' vote cannot afford to be led predominantly by a group of old Etonians, however gifted they may be. This makes a bad joke of democracy and nowadays it is seen that way, especially by the younger generation." - Reg Bevins, one of the few working-class Conservatives ever to have held ministerial office.
"Capital cannot ABIDE limits" - Marx, Grundrisse.
'Looking after 'the environment' is really just looking after each other' - Norwich's Lord Mayor, Green Councillor Tom Dylan
May you live this day, Compassionate of heart, Clear of word, Gracious in awareness, Courageous in thought, Generous in love. (Quaker saying)
"Always the years between us. Always the years. Always the love. Always the hours." - Attributed to Virginia Woolf, at the end of THE HOURS.
"The will to a system is a lack of integrity" - Nietzsche
"How far will your mad lusts take you, ye rich people, till you dwell alone on the earth? Why do you at once turn nature out of doors, and claim the possession of her for your own selves? The land was made for all; why do you rich men claim it as your private property?" St Ambrose
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - J.K. Galbraith
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." - George Orwell
"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. NO! NO! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of a ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard!" - William Lloyd Garrison, Abolitionist Leader on Slavery in America 1831.
"This crisis is bringing us an opportunity to experience what fewgenerations in history have ever had the privilige of knowing: agenerational mission; the exhilaration of a compelling moral purpose; ashared and unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by circumstancesto put aside the pettiness and conflict that so often stifle therestless human need for transcendence; the opportunity to rise. When wedo rise, it will fill our spirits and bind us together. Those who arenow suffocating in cynicism and despair will be able to breathe freely.Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives willfind hope. When we rise, we will experience an epiphany as we discoverthat this crisis is not really about politics at all. It is a moral andspiritual challenge." Al Gore.
'A Politician thinks of the next election, a Statesman thinks of the next generation'. Anonymous.
'The world was not given to us by our parents; it was loaned to us by our children'. Kenyan proverb.
Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown: “To be conscious in our world today is to be aware of vast suffering and unprecedented peril… The feelings that assail us now cannot be equated with ancient dreads of mortality… Their source lies less in concerns for the personal self than in apprehensions of collective suffering - of what happens to our own and other species, to the legacy of our ancestors, to unborn generations… That pain is the price of consciousness in a threatening and suffering world. It is not only natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective healing. As in all organisms, pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to trigger remedial action. The problem, therefore, lies not with our pain for the world, but in our repression of it."

About me

Rupert Read’s Animal Rights Credentials:

I live a vegan lifestyle (though I make an exception for some aspects of ‘freeganism’: e.g. I will eat vegetarian food that is otherwise going to be thrown away).

For many years a member of PETA & VIVA, and of the Green Party Animal Rights group.

Former Norfolk hunt-sab.

Frequent participant in demos over the years at places such as Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Key mover in the various initiatives that Norwich Green Party has made on animal rights through the Council chamber: e.g. our motion successfully calling for Norwich to become a ‘foie-gras-free-city’.

Author of several ‘pro-animal’ pieces including articles published in the Eastern Daily Press.