Hello,
I am currently reading This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, and would like to have an analytical discussion of each chapter with anyone who has read this book. Thank you.
This is one of the quotes within the book which I enjoy:
“The lady in the Rolls-Royce car is more damaging to morale than a fleet of Göring’s bombing-planes.”
–George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, 1941
Best,
FernDaawg

The Orwell quote I know. It was a reference to the Swanks who tried to maintain their upper-class snootiness during a war in which we (Us fing Brits y ken) were supposed to be all-in-it-together ( Like yeah right!) while East Londoners, North East Aberdonians etc were being bombed out of house and home. I would not be able to discuss the book because I don't know it. Indeed I don't know if I've heard of Klein
Naomi Klein is the Canadian anti-globalist who wrote "No Logo" and "The Shock Doctrine". In "No Logo" she criticized globalized capitalism and had attention for the sweatshops in Asia where brand products are made by poor laborers. It's an eye-opener. "This Changes Everything" is her book about climate change.
Some British newspapers reviewed it, in particular The Guardian and maybe The Independent. I gathered it was about climate change. I had not heard of Naomi Klein before, but I gathered she was a left wing, social justice sort of writer. That put me off, because even if she were right and I agreed with everything she wrote, I am unhappy about a scientific issue such as climate change being subverted as a left wing cause. For a start, it invokes a reaction in the not-so-left-wing. I have often suspected that among Greens, climate change was just one cause among many, and that it was not even the one they cared most about.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
The name Naomi Klein does ring a bell with me although I don't recall where I came across it.
It's unlikely that I would find a left-wing writer worth reading, as much of their activity is leavened with self-righteousness: with the exception of Orwell whose essays are very readable.
Therefore I find it somewhat disconcerting to be in agreement with her anti-globalisation stance.
If you believe that variety is the spice of life, being reduced to one DIN standard isn't an option, but the digital genie is out of the bottle and that's where we're headed.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
Sorry, kev67, you've lost me. How can decisions about climate change be anything other than political?
Last edited by Jackson Richardson; 11-25-2015 at 01:39 PM.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
[QUOTE=JonathanB;1308428]Sorry, kev67, you've lost me. How can decisions about climate change be anything other than political?[/QUOTE
Politicians have to make the decisions, but climate change is too important to be owned (only) by the left wing.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
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