Excess Ecology

  Goodbye letter expressing gratitude and blessing their relationship handwritten, signed, sealed delivered by hand and on foot. Said brief goodbye in person at the doorstep - called bye to new partner as I left, he said bye too. Walking to the cafe to write it and to Sonia's to deliver it then home by 9am, has done me the world of good. Intend to feel proud of having done the honorable thing in the end. Crichton and Nussbaum both incredibly right. Crichton deserves wider audience. One point from the Crichton quote that I missed in my last post: true pride, too, is a teacher of sociable love.

I'm not yet ready to weigh in on Ran's thoughts on freedom. The concept is central to Bookchin, and for him the definition of such a concept includes the history of that concept - including in this case freedom to act ethically: acting in the general interest, and acting to foster elaboration on the potential diversity and freedom around us. The recursive nature of this reminded me yesterday of Will Crichton, whose ideas on individuality are similarly recursive. And so, last night, after S had stopped answering my messages; after I went round to find out face to face, and her new partner opened the door...after initial reactions it was to Will Crichton's book I turned. Central to Crichton's Foundations for a New Civilization is the cultivation of attitudes rather than the solving of problems; attitudes being intentions to have a particular feeling towards an object. This passage: In false pride or shame one feels superior or inferior to others in one's community. I...