| Quite an interesting piece on 09:40 - Sep 9 with 1478 views | HarryfromBath |
I first came across Monbiot in the New Statesman in the eighties and I reckon you summed him up perfectly. You can usually pick holes in his arguments but you are happy to live with this because he often has the germ of some good ideas. He is good at helping to inform and alter ones' perceptions.
I read his recent book 'Feral' in which he argued for a proportion of the country's land to be 'rewilded', set aside to go back to nature. Again it was argumentative but you could see the point he was making about the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, even if he stretched things (for example) by floating the idea of reintroducing elephants into Europe. |  |
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| Quite an interesting piece on 09:55 - Sep 9 with 1470 views | Dyland |
| Quite an interesting piece on 09:40 - Sep 9 by HarryfromBath |
I first came across Monbiot in the New Statesman in the eighties and I reckon you summed him up perfectly. You can usually pick holes in his arguments but you are happy to live with this because he often has the germ of some good ideas. He is good at helping to inform and alter ones' perceptions.
I read his recent book 'Feral' in which he argued for a proportion of the country's land to be 'rewilded', set aside to go back to nature. Again it was argumentative but you could see the point he was making about the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, even if he stretched things (for example) by floating the idea of reintroducing elephants into Europe. |
I don't think it's a stretch to reintroduce elephants into Europe. Although this is the first I've heard of the idea it's now something I insist on seeing happen. |  |
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| Quite an interesting piece on 10:22 - Sep 9 with 1428 views | Guthrum |
| Quite an interesting piece on 09:55 - Sep 9 by Dyland |
I don't think it's a stretch to reintroduce elephants into Europe. Although this is the first I've heard of the idea it's now something I insist on seeing happen. |
I'm sure I've seen hippos out in the Fens. |  |
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| Quite an interesting piece on 10:32 - Sep 9 with 1417 views | lowhouseblue |
political narratives and story telling are key. but reducing politics to a dualism with 'neoliberalism' at one extreme is bad story telling and obscures more than it highlights. as he starts to show it's the interaction and dialogue between different stories that is far more interesting. so his story about 'altruism' needs to interact with an alternative story about 'fairness' - both are intuitively appealing and can be shown to be based in psychology and innate human behaviour. in the end you need a story that combines parts of tthe two. |  |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| Quite an interesting piece on 11:11 - Sep 9 with 1383 views | Darth_Koont |
Very good. As you say, there are a few oddities and gaps but it's more useful to think of the world in terms of these narratives and wider themes. We're often far too caught up in arguing about the details and ultimately missing the point.
His new narrative of Belonging needs a little work in my opinion. For starters, it doesn't really take into account the modern forces that we're dealing with i.e. Internet , telecoms, satellites, travel and trade that have effectively made the world smaller and have allowed multiple new belongings. Some might argue that it's this wider, more ambitious cooperation and altruism that has made us shift focus from our immediate communities. That genie isn't going back in the bottle though.
Personally, I'd prefer to see a narrative that talks about Investment. A desire not to use profit for wealth, status and consumption (as we now know that none of this actually makes us happier once we get past a certain point) but to reinvest it in our countries, our communities, our children, our businesses, our services and our natural resources. Currently there's still a widespread notion that taxes and the resultant spending are evils that make our world a worse place and they need to be minimised. Time to grow up and move on from that.
Investment is also a narrative about doing rather than thinking. It's a practical application of our altruism and cooperation. Clearly when it comes to investing, there'll be more of a tendency to invest in the world we see when we walk out our front door so we should also see a boost in our local communities and this sense of Belonging as we'll be partners with our neighbours. I also believe that if people can see how investment works on a personal and local level they'll better support spending in the wider world — both for poorer people and our planet. [Post edited 9 Sep 2017 11:12]
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| Quite an interesting piece on 11:20 - Sep 9 with 1364 views | Mullet |
| Quite an interesting piece on 09:40 - Sep 9 by HarryfromBath |
I first came across Monbiot in the New Statesman in the eighties and I reckon you summed him up perfectly. You can usually pick holes in his arguments but you are happy to live with this because he often has the germ of some good ideas. He is good at helping to inform and alter ones' perceptions.
I read his recent book 'Feral' in which he argued for a proportion of the country's land to be 'rewilded', set aside to go back to nature. Again it was argumentative but you could see the point he was making about the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, even if he stretched things (for example) by floating the idea of reintroducing elephants into Europe. |
I bet the Italians are unhappy about this! |  |
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