Humans thrive in conditions that morality condemns. The peace and prosperity of one generation stand on the injustices of earlier generations; the delicate sensibilities of liberal societies are fruits of war and empire. The same is true of individuals. Gentleness flourishes in sheltered lives; an instinctive trust in others is rarely strong in people who have struggled against the odds. In the world of Homer, there was no morality. There were surely ideas of right and wrong. But there was no idea of a set of rules that everyone must follow, or of a special, super potent kind of value that defeats all others. Ethics was about virtues such as courage and wisdom; but even the bravest and wisest of men go down to defeat and ruin. a b c "Straw Dogs (1971)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 29 May 2017 . Retrieved 31 August 2017.

Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Gray, John (1993). Post-Liberalism: Studies in Political Thought. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415088732. 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.” For Gray, Utopianism is a variant of the Kingdom of God, progress a non-theistic version of salvation history, the exaltation of human consciousness and the celebration of free will little more than the vestiges of a repressed belief in the integrity and persistence of the immortal soul. Gray argues that there is no real evidence for any of these commonly accepted beliefs: human consciousness is fitful, free will illusory, progress a fiction (history is cyclical, not forward-looking), and ”utopia”—given the contrary nature of man—will be (at best) the occasional result of autocratic, repressive regimes. If you believe that humans are animals, there can be no such thing as the history of humanity, only the lives of particular humans. If we speak of the history of the species at all, it is only to signify the unknowable sum of these lives. As with other animals, some lives are happy, others wretched. None has a meaning that lies beyond itself.” Gray, John (2011). The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374175061.BBC Radio 4 – A Point of View, Cats, birds and humans". Bbc.co.uk. 11 September 2011 . Retrieved 9 August 2013. We need not doubt the reality of truth to reject this Socratic faith. Human knowledge is one thing, human wellbeing another. There is no predetermined harmony between the two. The examined life may not be worth living. History and Meaning: Gray, John (1997). Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 978-0415173155. Yes, there is a danger in blind faith in progress or undue veneration of science. But all Gray has to offer as an alternative seems to be an even more unreliable amalgam of Eastern philosophy and Gaia theory. It's not enough. The apocalyptic romance of his vision is itself more akin to mysticism than rationality. And so the leaps in logic pile up. It is worth stressing (though hardly a new idea) that we are animals like any other species. But it takes some effort to go on to say that we are therefore in no way unusual in our accomplishments both good and bad. Similarly, Gray is right to show that morality breaks down in extreme circumstances. But he is wrong to conclude from this that it has no value. In Straw Dogs he argues that the idea that humans are self-determining agents does not pass the acid test of experience. Those Darwinist thinkers who believe humans can take charge of their own destiny to prevent environmental degradation are, in this view, not naturalists, but apostles of humanism. [11]

John Gray (philosopher) - Wikipedia John Gray (philosopher) - Wikipedia

makes me happy to imagine people who bought this wanting something else by the guy who wrote men are from mars, women are from venus... Review: 'Straw Dogs' ". Variety. Los Angeles California: Penske Media Corporation. 31 December 1970 . Retrieved 6 February 2015.On July 1, 2002, Straw Dogs finally was certified unedited on VHS and DVD. This version was uncut, and therefore included the second rape scene, in which in the BBFC's opinion "Amy is clearly demonstrated not to enjoy the act of violation". [38] The BBFC wrote that: Drug use is a tacit admission of a forbidden truth. For most people happiness is beyond reach. Fulfilment is found not in daily life but in escaping from it. Since happiness is unavailable, the mass of mankind seeks pleasure. Cities are no more artificial than the hives of bees. The internet is as natural as a spider's web. As Margulis and Sagan have written, we are ourselves technological devices, invented by ancient bacterial communities as means of genetic survival: 'We are a part of an intricate network that comes from the original bacterial takeover of the Earth. Our powers and intelligence do not belong specifically to us but to all life.'

Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Home Alone production designer John Muto identified that film as a "kids version of Straw Dogs". [39] The atheist Gray, who rejects the assumptions of Christianity, here targets the contemporary consensus of humanism. In ridding itself of theistic illusions, Gray believes, secular humanism didn’t go nearly far enough. George Crowder (2006). "Gray and the Politics of Pluralism". Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 9 (2): 171–188. doi: 10.1080/13698230600655008. S2CID 144224371. Gray, John (2016). The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0241953907. Here are eight of my favorite passages: * * * * * 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.

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Gray, John (1996). Mill on Liberty: A Defence (2nded.). London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415124744.

Straw Dogs - Macmillan

Gray, John (1991). J.S. Mill's On Liberty in Focus. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415010016.Central to the doctrine of humanism, in Gray's view, is the inherently utopian belief in meliorism; that is, that humans are not limited by their biological natures and that advances in ethics and politics are cumulative and that they can alter or improve the human condition, in the same way that advances in science and technology have altered or improved living standards. [11] Gray, John (2004). Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions. London: Granta Books. ISBN 978-1862077188. 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] The farmhouse where the final siege was filmed is still there and has barely changed in the half-century since the film was released.