Saturday, July 12, 2008

farmdoc's blog post number 83

George Monbiot changed his mind. That mightn’t tell you much, but it lets you know he’s not a politician. Monbiot is a 45-year-old journalist, author, academic, environmentalist and political activist. And blogger. In his 1 July 2008 blog post he wrote that he changed his mind about a matter – its nature is unimportant here – after he came across new evidence. How refreshing that someone has the honesty and integrity – and courage – to change his mind. Good for him. Me too, then. I previously wrote that I no longer have heroes. I now see that that’s nonsense. No person alive is so complete, perfect and self-contained that they can’t admire and learn from one or more others. Me included. So I’m back to having heroes, folks. One is Peter Cundall; if you want to know why, read this. Lest you think I have gender bias – which I don’t, because thanks to Sweetheart Vivienne and our darling daughters and granddaughters, I am an honorary female – another one is Catherine Deveny; if you want to know why, read anything she’s written, including this. Also I have enhanced the status of Dr Louis Glowinski from would-be hero to full hero. And Monbiot gets a hero guernsey too. Finally, I’ve changed my mind about who’d play me in a film of my life: exit Bruce Willis, enter Ed Harris.

1 comment:

Meg said...

Yours words are so refreshing, FD. Especially in light of the article about role models in today's Age.

Here's this from the article:

"The brand may be a game, a product or a cause. The same shallow marketing idea applies across the board. Find an attractive person and rub yourself against them. But if that person happens to be discovered in possession of three dimensions, to share human frailties or be prone to compromising habits, then forget it. The very qualities that might place them among the rest of us, credibly, disqualify them."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/people/shiny-happy-people-8212-blah/2008/07/11/1215658125956.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2