Lucidity is defined as A) The quality of being easily understood; completely intelligible; comprehensible, B) The ability to see things clearly; rationality; sanity. George Monbiot fits the bill on all counts.
I bring it up since for me most news accounts I read or hear these days are painful because of reporter’s superficial, heck downright childish perspectives and gapping blindspots. Not to mention the general normalizing and humoring of Serial Lies as a way of conducting business. They have nothing to offer but filler and leave one as clueless as when we began their stories.
On the other hand, when it comes to recognizing and explicating down to Earth physical and human realities and their impact on humanity and our society George Monbiot has a brutally cold realism that I find refreshing. Plus his stories are packed with links to his original sources enabling all readers to further familiarize themselves, rather than expecting us to simply take his word for it. He wants to inform and encourage readers to learn more on their own.
It seems he believes in the Constructive Debate were better understanding of all sides and were arriving at the most objective complete understanding is the goal. Rather than those petty Republican dogma driven dog-chasing-tail debates were never arriving at any actionable conclusions is the goal of the exercise.
Tragically too few these days represent that sort of sober approach to living and dealing with problems and a threatening future that promises to get ever tougher with continuing human failures. I've been thinking about it since I'm working on yet another Monbiot bootleg (thought I continue endeavoring to get through to him and arrange some sort of official sanction - and have succeeded, see the comments) and I was trying to think of a solid way to show my appreciation. Thus, this index with links to Monbiot’s blog posts going back to September 2015 after that I have a link to Alternate's complete index.
I start with a few of his recent UK’s Guardian Op-eds which should be required reading for anyone intending to oppose and moderate Trump Administration damage to our American government. Oh, and I encourage you to copy this and pass it around. I would think there are many who would benefit from becoming familiar with Monbiot's work.
Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it.
George Monbiot | November 30, 2016
Many of his staffers are from an opaque corporate misinformation network. We must understand this if we are to have any hope of fighting back against them
_____________________________________
Trump’s climate denial is just one of the forces that point towards war.
George Monbiot | November 23, 2016
The failure to get to grips with our crises, by all mainstream political parties, is likely to lead to a war between the major powers in my lifetime
____________________________________
Without the power of kindness, our society will fall apart.
George Monbiot | November 2, 2016
When we are vulnerable and estranged from each other we can be easily manipulated by demagogues, as can be seen in the US and Europe
____________________________________
____________________________________
How a ruthless network of super-rich ideologues killed choice and destroyed people’s faith in politics Read more.
Donald Trump is not an outlier, but the distillation of our dominant values Read more.
Donald Trump’s staff are drawn from an opaque network of corporate-funded thinktanks and fake grassroots campaigns Read more.
We face (at least) 13 major crises, some of which are immediate. It’s time for some hard thinking about how we confront them. Read more.
The combination of automation, complexity and climate change is dangerous in ways we haven’t even begun to grasp. Read more.
The High Court judgement on air pollution is an opportunity to rethink our whole transport system. Read more.
Only by crossing social boundaries and coming together can we resist the forces that threaten to crush us. Read more.
Sorry, but you cannot build new runways and prevent climate breakdown Read more.
Why should plagues of mental illness surprise us, in a world being ripped apart? Read more.
Democracy cannot work as it is meant to; human nature does not allow it. Read more.
Is music an answer to the epidemic of loneliness? Read more.
It’s a simple choice: stop all fossil fuel prospecting, or break the Paris agreement on climate change. Read more.
There are plenty of brilliant plans for getting us moving without trashing the planet. So why aren’t they happening? Read more.
Consumerism occupies a sacred and inviolable space, while the wonders of the living world are dispensable. Read more.
Corporate lobbyists and their captive governments try to wear down our resistance with one fake trade treaty after another. Read more.
The fake grassroots campaign run by grouse shooters is just one instance of the way democracy is being bypassed Read more.
Why I took the plunge at last and converted (almost) to veganism Read more.
The climate crisis is here, now, but a compromised, corrupted media doesn’t want to know. Read more.
To this government, “taking back control” means handing Britain to a different set of foreign powers Read more.
Want to cast someone into the outer darkness? Then give them the environment department, that should be the most important portfolio of all. Read more.
If we saw it anywhere else, we would recognise our political funding system as utterly corrupt Read more.
The Chilcot report is utterly damning; but it’s still not justice. Read more.
The Labour Party can survive, but only if it’s prepared to form an alliance with other parties Read more.
The decision to leave the EU is a disaster, but also a great opportunity for renewal Read more.
Those who want to leave the EU refuse to make the most crushing argument against it. Here’s why. Read more.
The European Union looks thoroughly rotten – until you compare it to the alternatives. Read more.
Crisis after crisis is being caused by a failed ideology. But it cannot be stopped without a coherent alternative. Read more.
Academic standards go up in smoke in a wildly biased paper on burning in the British uplands. Read more.
7th March 2016
I’m still alive – but keeping quiet about it.
Dear Readers,
I’m currently taking 4 months off – the first substantial break I’ve had in 30 years of journalism – to start writing a dark, depraved and probably doomed novel. It’s an idea I’ve been sitting on for ten years. I realised that unless I carved out some time for it, I would never discover what a terrible novelist I could have been. I will also use the time to complete the album I’m writing with Ewan McLennan, and to step back in the hope of obtaining a wider view of the world.
So far I’m enjoying my time away from documenting human depravity (or at least those aspects of it not covered by the novel), though I will doubtless be raring to return to it after four months exploring the inside of my head and finding it contains rather less than I had hoped. I’ll be back in mid-June, just in time for the Euro-conflagration.
George
I am starting to hate the European Union. But I will vote to stay in. Read more.
Oil, the industry that threatens us with destruction, is being bailed out with public money Read more.
My interview, in his 90th year, with Sir David Attenborough Read more.
I see the people on trial for occupying a runway at Heathrow as democratic heroes. Read more.
National park authorities inflict mass destruction on wildlife and habitats, then call it conservation Read more.
Who is most responsible for high abortion rates? The religious right. Read more.
How the government learnt absolutely nothing from the recent floods. Read more.
An ability to contest the circumstances of our birth is an essential element of our humanity. Read more.
How public money and crazy policies speed water off the land and into our homes Read more.
The joints of meat that do more damage than a long-haul flight Read more.
Rewilding, hillwalking and the extraordinary history of these islands. Read more.
The remarkable decline in violence between humans suggests that we could also restrain our violence against the planet. Read more.
The COP21 climate talks in Paris were not the success that governments claim, but a disastrous failure. Read more.
Censoring official advice, stripping the hills and rivers, the government ensures that disasters like the Cumbria floods will keep recurring. Read more.
There are plenty of real problems with aircraft emissions. But thousands of people are obsessed instead with a fairy tale. Read more.
Why is the government so quick to bomb, yet so slow to act on climate change? Read more.
An online tool that changes your answers is not the only problem with this attempt to fake public consent for dredging a dolphin reserve. Read more.
The belief that economic growth can be detached from destruction appears to be based on a simple accounting mistake. Read more.
It’s about time we discussed the real population crisis. Read more.
The agencies supposed to protect the living world have been neutered, and polluters and wildlife destroyers now have a free hand. Read more.
A leaked letter from David Cameron offers a remarkable – and terrifying – insight into his mind. Read more.
Why does the Welsh government propose this gratuitous act of destruction? It refuses to say. Read more.
The UK’s national parks should be redesignated as ecological disaster zones. Read more.
Banks and corporations are being liberated from the rule of law, and are ripping the world apart. Read more.
In the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st Century (so far), Indonesia has been blotted out by smoke. And the media. Read more.
Britain’s housing crisis won’t end until we face some uncomfortable truths Read more.
Fascinating new lines of research suggest that we are good people, tolerating bad things. Read more.
The US bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan is just one symptom of comprehensive military failure Read more.
The hideous pollution case I stumbled on illustrates our failure to see the harm caused by animal farming. Read more.
There may be water on Mars. But is there intelligent life on Earth? Read more.
24th September 2015
The Ecomodernists launching their manifesto today propose solutions that are both ignorant and brutal. Read more.
To find older articles by George Monbiot visit alternet.org where they have the complete collection listed:
1 comment:
I'm happy to report that George Monbiot has responded to my request for permission to repost some of his articles with the following:
"Hi Peter,
Many thanks for your message and apologies for not getting back to you before.
Yes, you are welcome to repost my articles online (if it was in print you would need permission from the Guardian too).
Please acknowledge where the article first appeared and add a link to my website www.monbiot.com and www.theguardian.com.
All good wishes,
George"
______________________________________________________________________
And I thank George for your excellent articles and for your blessing to continue occasionally featuring REPOSTS of your excellent thought provoking writings.
Post a Comment