Passionate reading

I’ve been reading George Monbiot’s The Age of Consent, which (and I’m only on Chapter 3) calls for the setting up of a world parliament. It’s a funny thing as it reminded me, reading through it last night, of when dad used to tell us stories when we were kids. These stories seemed ahead of their time – one I remember well was based on the concept of a world parliament. So it’s funny, how this idea has lain dormant in my mind for all these years, only to come out again when reading The Age of Consent.

I consider myself generally optimistic about humankind, that generally people want peace, want justice and have a sense of fairness that goes beyond the narrow boundaries of what’s “best for me”. Yet, I have to say that his book disturbed me by forcing me to confront beliefs about “other people” that I didn’t know I had.