Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Product Information

Gray's political thought is noted for its mobility across the political spectrum over the years. As a student, Gray was on the left and continued to vote Labour into the mid-1970s. By 1976 he had shifted towards a right-liberal New Right position, on the basis that the world was changing irrevocably through technological inventions, realigned financial markets and new economic power blocs and that the left failed to comprehend the magnitude and nature of this change. [8] In the 1990s Gray became an advocate for environmentalism and New Labour. Gray considers the conventional (left-wing/right-wing) political spectrum of conservatism and social democracy as no longer viable. [9] a b "The 44th Academy Awards | 1972". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved 22 January 2021. Williams, Melanie (2005). Secrets and Laws: Collected Essays Law, Lives and Literature. Abingdon, England: Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84472-018-7. De Botton, Alain (4 March 2013). "Alain de Botton on five great philosophical pessimists". The Telegraph . Retrieved 1 December 2022. He says, “It is scarcely possible to imagine a philosophy such as Platonism emerging in an oral culture.” (p. 57) Hello. What we know of Plato’s philosophy comes from dialogues, an oral medium and art form. It’s not hard to imagine; Plato makes it completely explicit.

Straw Dogs (1972) - Turner Classic Movies Straw Dogs (1972) - Turner Classic Movies

The destruction of the natural world is not the result of global capitalism, industrialisation, ‘Western civilisation’ or any flaw in human institutions. It is a consequence of the evolutionary success of an exceptionally rapacious primate. Throughout all of history and prehistory, human advance has coincided with ecological devastation.” We are all bundles of sensations. The unified, continuous self that we encounter in everyday experience belongs in maya (illusion). We are programmed to perceive identity in ourselves, when in truth there is only change. We are hardwired for the illusion of self. But the value of science as metaphysic belongs in another sphere. It belongs with religion and art and love, with the pursuit of the beatific vision, with the Promethean madness that leads the greatest men to strive to become gods. Perhaps the only ultimate value of human life is to be found in this Promethean madness. But it is a value that is religious, not political, or even moral.– Bertrand Russel

Customer reviews

The lesson of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science is that we are descendants of a long lineage, only a fraction of which is human. We are far more than the traces that other humans have left in us. Our brains and spinal cords are encrypted with traces of far older worlds. Science enables humans to satisfy their needs. It does nothing to change them. We are no different today from what we have always been. There is progress in knowledge, but not in ethics. This is the verdict both of science and history, and the view of every one of the world’s religions. The darkness within. John Gray on why the left is in flight from "human nature". John Gray. Published in New Statesman 16 September 2002 Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution: the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p.293. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada

Straw Dogs by John Gray | Waterstones

The calls of birds and the traces left by wolves to mark off their territories are no less forms of language than the sings of humans. What is distinctively human is not the capacity for language. It is the crystallisation of language in writing.” He does have his favorites. He likes Taoism and Schopenhauer. But with most other thinkers, he takes a two-sentence shot and dismisses them without trying to understand. It’s as though he’s saying, “So much for that one! I don’t have to think about him any more! There goes another one!” Potshots are fun, but they are no substitute for engagement. Gray, John (2002). Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans & Other Animals. London: Granta Books. ISBN 978-1862075122. There is unlikely to be a more provocative or more compelling book published this year than Straw Dogs . . . Gray is one of the most consistently interesting and unpredictable thinkers in Britain.” — Jason Cowley, The Observer (London)

John Gray’s Advice For A Better Life

Varathan (Newcomer) is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written by Suhas-Sharfu and directed by Amal Neerad. Set in Kerala, it is an adaptation of Straw Dogs and stars Fahadh Faasil and Aishwarya Lekshmi in the lead roles. In the UK, the British Board of Film Classification banned it in accordance with the newly introduced Video Recordings Act. The film had been released theatrically in the United Kingdom, with the uncut version gaining an 'X' rating in 1971 and the slightly cut US R-rated print being rated '18' in 1995. In March 1999 a partially edited print of Straw Dogs, which removed most of the second rape, was refused a video certificate when the distributor lost the rights to the film after agreeing to make the requested BBFC cuts, and the full uncut version was also rejected for video three months later on the grounds that the BBFC could not pass the uncut version so soon after rejecting a cut one. Harris, Will (26 July 2017). "David Warner on Twin Peaks, Tron, Titanic, Time Bandits, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 5 November 2017. Nothing will get you thinking as much as this brilliant book.” — George Walden, The Sunday Telegraph

Straw Dogs Book Summary - John Gray - Wise Words Straw Dogs Book Summary - John Gray - Wise Words

Although all the interiors were filmed in London studios, the location shots for Straw Dogs were all shot in freezing conditions in St Buryan in the early part of 1971. Action preserves a sense of self-identity that reflection dispels. When we are at work in the world we have a seeming solidity. Action gives us consolation for our inexistence. It is not the idle dreamer who escapes from reality. It is practical men and women, who turn to a life of action as a refuge from insignificance. John Gray, σαφώς ένα τέτοιο αιρετικό μυαλό, σύγχρονος φιλόσοφος με αξιόλογη πορεία, πετσοκόβει χωρίς το γάντι τις παραφυάδες αισιοδοξίας που φυτρώνουν στο ανθρώπινο μυαλό, το γεμάτο ψευδαισθήσεις για να καταφέρνει να την βγάζει καθαρή. Ο αισιόδοξος αναγνώστης δε θα βρει απάνεμο καταφύγιο. Ο απαισιόδοξος -η υποφαινόμενη ανήκει σε αυτούς- θα δεχτεί με ευχαρίστηση την ενδοφλέβια αυτή ένεση επιβεβαίωσης των κατά βάση κακών οιωνών για το ανθρώπινο είδος. Gray, John (1996). After Social Democracy: Politics, Capitalism and the Common Life. London: Demos. ISBN 978-1898309529.Ultimately, however, it is clear that Gray is an exponent of Natural Law. This is a highly dangerous intellectual stance since it allows conclusions based on whatever presumptions one makes about what is natural (See https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for some of the history and consequences of these presumptions). For example, by relegating morality to the realm of the unnatural, Gray is implicitly promoting violence. While an ethic of civilized justice may well be nothing more than a shared fiction and convention, I think it’s clear that it is also far more life-affirming than the alternatives. Morality is indeed an invention of human society. And it may well be unnatural (although this is difficult to prove since it arises from natural human creatures). Perhaps moral civilization is what the religious-minded call a state of grace. Political action has come to be a surrogate for salvation; but no political project can deliver humanity from its natural condition. However radical, political programmes are expedients – modest devices for coping with recurring evils. BBC Radio 4 – A Point of View, Believing in Belief". Bbc.co.uk. 18 September 2011 . Retrieved 9 August 2013.