“Feantsa says a consensus has been building for several years across Europe on an approach to reinstate housing as a fundamental right guaranteed by international and European treaties, but acknowledges that there is little sign of systemic change.”
https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/mar/23/homelessness-european-problem-uk-rise
Humans killed the rhinos. Humans did this. Be less human.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/20/last-male-white-rhino-is-put-down
Yes, but what can we actually do? Can anyone give me a roadmap for change? It doesn’t feel like ‘consume less, care more’ is enough anymore.
Black and White: how Dangerous kicked off Michael Jackson’s race paradox
No, romance fiction is not at the forefront of feminist thought. It’s the weight feminists are forced to drag behind them in their fight for equality. They reflect the fantasies of the masses, and the minds of the masses are slow to change. Saying romance fiction is empowering doesn’t make it empowering.
More upside-down thinking from Class-A humans. This time it’s not the gun lobby but the automobile association. And more than a few of us believe the same rubbish and can’t see the rubbish for the believing.
‘Another’ crazy rock-star philosopher? Why not.
I’m yet to read Morton’s work, but the interview makes his ideas sound like a case from Dirk Gently’s files (albeit more ecological and less fantastic), or the novel on complex systems Douglas Adams was working on when he died.
Some quotes form the article:
Morton likens this realisation [that everything is connected] to detective stories in which the hunter realises he is hunting himself (his favourite examples are Blade Runner and Oedipus Rex). … “Oh, my God!” Morton exclaimed to me in mock horror at one point. “My attempt to escape the web of fate was the web of fate.”
Later:
This leads Morton to one of his most sweeping claims: that the Anthropocene is forcing a revolution in human thought. Advances in science are now underscoring how “enmeshed” we are with other beings – from the microbes that account for roughly half the cells in our bodies, to our reliance for survival on the Earth’s electromagnetic heat shield. At the same time, hyperobjects, in their unwieldy enormity, alert us to the absolute boundaries of science, and therefore the limits of human mastery.
And:
Poring over his books, or speaking to him in person, one starts to suspect that what is outlandish in his thinking and personality actually reflects something truly strange about the world. Over lunch, Morton ordered a chicken salad sandwich – an earlier experiment with veganism had lapsed – and we discussed the development of his thought. As he ate, I was reminded of a recent report that almost 60bn chickens are slaughtered globally every year, which, in the words of Jan Zalasiewicz, means that their carcasses have now been “fossilised in thousands of landfill sites and on street corners around the world”. That thought leads immediately to another one: about the bacterial “superbugs” we have created through widespread use of antibiotics, especially in industrial livestock production. From there, it’s only a short jump to thinking about other strange phenomena in our new epoch, like rocks formed from plastic and seashells, and changes in the earth’s rotation caused by melting ice sheets. Once you start listing these unsettling Anthropocene facts, there’s no end to it.
Giving us a peek into the method of Morton’s madness, Blasdel, the author of the article, writes:
He has achieved the usual trappings of academic success; now that he’s through the metaphorical metal detectors of polite society, he has a different aim. “I can get quite well known, and then I can unleash this kind of anarchist-hippie thing that I’ve been holding like a very precious liquid, carefully, without spilling any, for years and years and years,” he said. “And now I’m going to pour it everywhere.”
Which, ultimately, is not incompatible with the criticisms:
The Morton detractors with whom I spoke accused him of misunderstanding contemporary science, like quantum mechanics and set theory, and then claiming his distortions as support for his wild ideas. They shared a broad critique that reminded me of the sceptical adage, “If you open your mind too far, your brains will fall out.”
Read the article here.
So sad to see countries–and peoples–take the wrong turn, pull the rug from under their own feet, tear themselves apart. Author Elif Shafak reflects on the path Turkey is taking.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/13/elif-shafak-nations-dont-always-learn-from-history
“… But then sex and relationships are one of the last remaining bastions of unreconstructed racial prejudice.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/13/black-woman-always-fetishised-racism-in-bedroom
Be Less Human 