My new book, Short Conversations: During the Storm, is out now.
I hope you’ll love it.
It’s a book which engages you in a conversation – a conversation about the enemies of the 99% and of the biological world.
Self-harm
These enemies are waging a chemical war against us, and using weapons of mass destruction against the environment.
Pollution. Deforestation. The industrial scale production of greenhouse gasses. The mass consumption of compromised food. Over-farming. Over-fishing. Soil loss.
But these processes are driven by people very much like us – so why do we as a species continue this relentless self-harm?
Short Conversations looks at the underlying forces which sustain the war we’ve declared on ourselves. It asks, “What motivates this socially divisive, eco-destructive behaviour? What are the root causes? And what’s behind the greed, power-hunger and corruption of the super-rich 1%?”
A disease
As I try to answer this question, I diagnose a peculiar sickness at the heart of our world: a cognitive sickness; a disease of the mind.
Our world is in the grip of a ‘mind plague’, a pandemic of bad ideas.
Ideas like these:
– The biosphere can survive anything we throw at it
– Let’s keep consuming more and more – there’s no reason not to
– Waste doesn’t matter
– Technology will save us
– Don’t mess with the economy – it’s bad for business
– Don’t mess with business – it’s bad for the economy
– Nation states are more important than people
– Corporations give a f***
– We’ve got a free media and a free press – you better believe it
– Voting occasionally means you live in a functioning democracy
– The world’s like it is because that’s how it’s got to be
– Little folk can’t change things; we’re just pawns in the big folk’s games
The cumulative effect of these malign, viral ideas is to jeopardise our children’s future, and to jeopardise the biological world.
Content
Here are some quotes from the book which I believe you’ll like.
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“A moral society puts people first.
Not wealth.
Not power.
Not nation states.
Not archaic forms of government or law.
Not royal families or venerable castes.
People.
Ordinary people.
Us.”
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“Inequality doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t strike like lightning out of the blue. We’ve structured our society, our laws and our economy to support it.
More than that, the 0.1% work hard to secure and perpetuate their claim …to accelerate the feedback loops of wealth.”
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“Our economy has given us this:
– Selfishness is king
– Greed is queen
– Profit is our God
– The economy is our religion
– Ownership is our temple
– Wealth is our sacrament
– Ruthlessness is admirable
– Acquisition is commendable
– Always want more
– Winner takes all
What a success story!
We now have a value system that’s the very opposite of what any sustainable civilisation needs!”
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“As far as ordinary folk go, the blindly privileged, the securely propertied and the complacently well-to-do, the ‘centrists’ and ‘moderates’ who describe themselves as ‘the adults in the room’, are part of the problem.
That’s because they’re unwilling to accept that a problem really exists, a problem that only radical change can resolve.”
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“When you laugh at an oppressor it reminds you they’re vulnerable. It makes your oppression feel as if it might not last forever, as if it’s not set in stone.”
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“Liars like to say there’s no such thing as truth.
Or that truth’s relative.
That there’s your truth and my truth.
I beg to disagree.”
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“Here’s a truth grenade:
You don’t want to be talked down to.
You want to be treated as an equal.
You want a say in the things that effect your life….
Ignore a truth grenade and it’ll explode in your face.”
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“The news…
Now THERE’S something interesting.
‘The news?’
Yes.
‘And what’s that?’
This:
Every single item of news you hear or see is something someone wants you to hear or see.”
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“Our civilisation is made up of ideas.
Society is nothing more than a trick of the mind.”
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“Humanity is in the grip of a mind plague – a pandemic of propaganda and lies – and it’s one which is failing to deliver herd immunity….
It’s all set to deliver herd death instead.”
Vaccines
But I bring more to the table than just a diagnosis.
I outline vaccines and a cure…
Vaccines like these:
– A shield of values
– A wall of truth
And antivirals like these:
– The Socrates Bomb
– Chaplin’s Stiletto
– Kate’s Garrotte
– The Truth Grenade
– The Alternatives Ambush
There are no patents for these vaccines and antivirals. No multinational corporation or obscure international court can sue you for using them. They are available to anyone and everyone. The ‘How To Build’ instructions come with the book.
So why read this book?
You should read Short Conversations because…. well, partly because it’s not like any other book you’ve ever read.
You should read it because it will move you.
You should read it because it will change you.
And you should read Short Conversations: During the Storm because we’re in the eye of a perfect storm.
We’re in a storm of climate breakdown, social division and spiralling inequality. We’re in a storm of populism, nationalist conservatism, authoritarianism and corporate dominance. We’re in a storm of political corruption, media sequestration and democratic failure.
Why should you read this book?
Because not only do I look at the causes of the storm, but I also offer a route out.
We all want safety, don’t we?
We all want our world and our children to be safe, don’t we?
You should read this book because it’s about what we all want.
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Luke Andreski
Luke Andreski is a founding member of the @EthicalRenewal and Ethical Intelligence collectives and author of Short Conversations: During the Plague (2020), Intelligent Ethics (2019) and Ethical Intelligence (2019). His new book, Short Conversations: During the Storm is out now.
You can connect with Luke on LinkedIn, https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luke-andreski-ethics, on WordPress, https://lukeandreski.wordpress.com/, or via the EthicalRenewal co-op on Twitter https://twitter.com/EthicalRenewal.
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