I agree with David Crouch that there is a danger of alienating people by
engaging in political (or other) activity which occupies 'public' space. I
also agree that there is much to be said for 'quiet' approaches like his
community gardening (or in my case, helping to run a Credit Union). These
things are not incompatible with more overt protest though. Many people
have different hats they wear at different times, and activists often go
through phases of favouring community-based action, electoral politics, big
protest, acts of criminal damage, or other tactics to different degrees. I
suppose its all part of the complexity and contradication of trying to work
out how to live ethically and promote positive change in a society which in
general regards ethics as a poor relation of economics, and uncontrolled
change as subversion. The only things I would never advocate are doing
physical harm to living beings or doing nothing!
David.
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David Wood
PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
Centre for Rural Economy
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
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