The angry men know that this golden age (of fossil fuels) has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how angry individuals resist societal constraints while failing to articulate their true frustrations, which stem from the moral responsibilities they have towards others.
In this quote, George Monbiot critiques those who are upset about the end of an era marked by abundant fossil fuels. He suggests that their anger is rooted in a refusal to acknowledge the necessary societal limitations that exist for the benefit of others. Despite their claims of oppression through labels such as communism or fascism, their real aversion lies in the ethical obligations humanity has towards one another. This tension reveals a deeper conflict between individual desires and collective decency.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate about environmental policies and individual freedoms.
The notions that nature exists to serve us; that its value consists of the instrumental benefits we can extract; that this value can be measured in cash terms; and that what can't be measured does not matter, have proved lethal to the rest of life on Earth.
I believe that anyone who wants to stand in a national election should receive a course of psychotherapy. Completing the course should be a qualification for office. This wouldn't change the behaviour of psychopaths, but it might prevent some people who exercise power from imposing their own deep wounds on others.
I became an environmentalist because I love the living world, but I spend much of my life thinking about electricity, industrial processes and civil engineering.
Places that have become agricultural deserts, trashed by giant corporations, could be reforested, drawing carbon dioxide from the air on a vast scale. The ecosystems of land and sea could recover, not just in pockets but across great tracts of the planet.
Never underestimate the power of intrinsic values. They inspire every struggle for a better world.
Why is it so easy to save the banks - but so hard to save the biosphere?
I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.
In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves.
Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don't know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. [...] Ralph shouted. Hear him! He's got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it's only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum.
It is so much easier to talk of poverty than to think of the poor.
War has been avoided from a due sense of the miseries, and the demoralization it produces, and of the superior blessings of a state of peace and friendship with all mankind.
Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.
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