2018/04/10

Hear Your Body Whisper: How to Unlock Your Self-Healing Mechanism



Amazon.com: Customer reviews: 
Unique perspective on the body
ByDr. Giaon August 15, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
This is a fascinating book! I've read a lot about diet and exercise and healing, and Otakara has a perspective I've never heard before. She sees the body is a separate entity from the being. She also acknowledges that every body is different and has different needs and desires.

Otakara tells stories to understand bodies, such as having walking sticks (bugs) when growing up and developing a relationship with them, where she understood them deeply, and correlating this to having a relationship with our bodies, which are comprised in large part by microorganisms. Another interesting analogy is how bees kill and cover invaders in their hive, such as a mouse, with substance in much the same way as the body covers toxins with fat, to isolate it from infecting the rest of the body.

I learned several new facts, such as up to 20% of our energy is consumed by the brain -- it's not just calories in/calories out the way we're usually taught (food minus exercise equals whether we gain or lose weight). I also learned that the body responds best to repetitive foods, rather than variety. However, those foods are different from person to person.

A great way to learn about and communicate with our bodies is through meditation, and Otakara walks us through that process.

If you want to learn more about your body and how to listen to it and communicate with it, this book is for you!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Transformative, inspiring, and empowering!
ByRebecca C.on August 27, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I usually read very fast, but I had to sip this book slowly like a cup of tea, inhale it like flower essences, rub my fingers through it like earth.
This is not just a book: it’s a sensory experience.
It’s an experience of being gently urged and encouraged by a wise teacher, to get in touch with our bodies in ways that have been off limits to those of us who grew up in a culture that sees the body as a battleground.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been fighting with my body since before I was born. My mother was fighting with HER body, and my grandmother with hers.
This book is telling me, gently and kindly, to stop it. And it is teaching me, with wisdom and insight, HOW.

Otakara Klettke used the techniques she so generously shares in this book to heal herself of a very serious illness she’d had since childhood. Her perspective is different from any I’ve encountered in the many other health-related self-help books I’ve read.
The book’s main message is very simple: love your body. And listen to it, because it knows what it needs to be healthy, and it knows what’s good for you.
The author goes into detail about how listen to your body, using meditations, affirmations, exercise, and a loving and simple approach to diet and supplements.
Reading this book is not like reading other books. It is not about absorbing information (although there is plenty of good and useful information in it).

Reading this book feels like being gently lifted and transformed, taken to a place where the war that western society imposes on our bodies, is over, where it’s not only OK to be friends with your body: it’s the right thing to do.

Reading this book makes you think. If you read it like I did, slowly, deeply, inhaling its wisdom into your pores, you will be a different person by the time you finish reading it.
You will be a person who feels good about their body, who loves every cell and organ and microorganism that is part of you.

This book will make you think differently. Instead of fighting with myself for being “too fat”, I now have a scientific understanding of how fat works as a protective mechanism to fight inflammation.

Instead of urging me listen to an authority figure speaking from on high about what I need to do for my body, this book takes a totally different approach. This book teaches me to understand that the ultimate authority on what is good for my body is my body itself... and teaches me how to listen to the wisdom my body wants to share with me.

The chapter on diet inspired me to put together my own list of simple, healthy foods that work for me. I don’t need to consult a book to know what those are (not even this book). In fact, this book doesn’t give you a standard list of foods you “should” eat at all... because the book’s whole point is that YOUR BODY will tell you what it needs to eat. And indeed, I know very well what my body does and doesn’t need to eat, but I hadn’t been listening because what I knew didn’t match with what “experts” were saying I SHOULD eat.
Instead of feeling guilty or “wrong” because my food list does not agree with what an expert or theory says I ‘SHOULD” eat, I now feel happy and confident because I have been supported in my inner knowing about what my body wants and needs.
This book will take you on a journey in which you will learn that your body is not the enemy, a foe to be subdued. You will feel different after reading it, than you did before. You will have a different relationship with your own body.
I don’t want to give too much away... read it for yourself. Reading it will be a different experience for each person, because this book is not about how to make one size fit all. It’s about how to make YOU fit YOU.
Your experience of reading it will be unique, and different from mine, because you are different from me.
But trust me on one thing:
This is not just a book. It’s a revolution.
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5.0 out of 5 starsShe began to listen to her body and is now in good health, having seen a doctor only two times ...
ByWendy Higdonon August 21, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Otakara Klettke opens her book with her heartfelt story of being so sick as a teen that she wanted a way out of all the pain. She began to listen to her body and is now in good health, having seen a doctor only two times in 15 years other than for pregnancy visits.

With a wealth of information, she builds the case for listening to your body and covers the gamut, including such topics as your brain, drugs, GMO vs. organic foods, detoxification, meditation, use of affirmations, exercise, drinking pure water, being in the outdoors, and getting healthy. It is an approach to listen to and honor your body to be healthy. I love the quote she used by Dean Ornish, "Healthy is not something that you need to get; it's something you have already if you don't disturb it."

Hear Your Body Whisper is well worth the read!
Comment| 38 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
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I absolutely loved the part about self observation
ByEmma G.on February 12, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Shows the futility of healing your body by waging war with it.
I must say, this book was very refreshing because it parallels mine own similar experiences in overcoming physical afflictions via natural means as much as possible. And the way to do this is often at odds with what mainstream medicine espouses.
First off, I absolutely loved the part about self observation, even if it's just for a few days followed by what she covers on meditation. Personally, I found this to be very effective both with things like diet and exercise, along with the way we process information, manage emotions, handle problems and even deal with stressful personalities around us.
Second, I loved how she educates the reader on some of the latest discoveries in the medical sciences along with that timeless wise parallel of eastern practices. The result is that the reader has a much richer tapestry of perspectives to draw from.
Finally, I was absolutely shocked when she talked about the changes in peoples diets over the past hundred years, especially how much sugar people consume today versus the past. Very eye-opening, and explains many of the conundrums people are struggling with physiologically.
(Pay special attention to what she has to say about artificial sweeteners, too!)
There's much more I can say about this book; suffice it to say that it's obviously a labor of love for the author and will surely go a long way in improving the lives of those who read it....
Comment| 21 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book
ByAngelaon November 12, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I absolutely loved this book. Having had digestion problems for the past 5 or so years, I have been really struggling to find the right "diet" without actually going on a diet. So frustrating. What to eat? How much to eat? When to eat? Why to eat? So many questions that have to be answered at least 3 times a day. :-O Otakara has really given me food for thought ... pun intended.... her approach makes so much sense, the part that particularly resonated with me was to make it easy and automate your meals. I started to do that as soon as I put the book down and I can honestly say my digestion problems have all but been resolved. I know it's sounds too good to be true, but it's more of a mindset than anything else, I automate my breakfast and lunch and get creative with my children for our evening meal. The stress of eating has gone. THANK YOU Otakara. <3
Comment| 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Book that everyone should read
ByPeggy Limon August 23, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Otakara Klettku shares her experiences which will help all of us who want a healthy body without summarily resorting to medication and too many dietary supplements. To be healthy, we should first “honor, respect and love” our bodies. There are lots of micro-organisms living within our gut that help us to function optimally and we can complement their roles by eating a simple diet consisting of high quality food, preferably organic. She stresses the need to be consistent in a diet that is free from artificial additives but of high nutritional value, which should include fiber, protein, healthy fats, vitamins and micro-nutrients. She teaches how to cleanse and detox, how to meditate and how to talk to our bodies so that they will let us know what is needed to be healthy and to stay healthy. Our bodies are self-healing if we know how to activate the process and Ms. Otakara shows us how.
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5.0 out of 5 starsRefocusing My Hearing
ByAmazon Customeron August 21, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I'm just half way through and, without a doubt, this is one book I will finish. The writing style is engaging. Every page I read makes me want to read more. With a lifetime of experience in dieting, I've never before learned that listening to my own body could make the difference. What the author had to go through as a child to put her in a place to seek out the knowledge in this book just proves that bad things can be the driving force for good things. These words are destined to help many.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing concept
ByTaya Mon October 3, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Great book and truly amazing concept. The author draws on her life experience overcoming major health problems as a child by listening to her body. The author covers a lot of knowledge of her ideas on nutrition as well, which is very insightful. She talks of the deep importance of listening to the body's needs over the mind's cravings and how your life, health and well-being can change when you begin to do this - and backs it up with credible research into the advantages. I found myself highlighting many valuable lines and takeaways. In fact more than I've done in a long time. I just sooo wanted her to cover more deeply HOW to differentiate between a mind craving and a body's need, basically how to actually go within and do that amazing work she talks about the importance of. Maybe in a second edition??
Comment| 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying, moved quickly, right to the points
ByElizabethon November 18, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I liked that it had a focus on the microbiomes in our body, and I learned that they are more efficient the more you eat something repeatedly, especially if it's something natural(and not a mess, like GMO so it has confusing dna).

Pretty simple in its presentation, covered a lot of ground. I was skeptical because the author wasn't some know it all expert, but I was drawn in by the "if this person figured out how to..." sense of curiosity.

I'd say give the book a preview, check out the chapter titles. It's probably too woo if you are a materialist thinker, but for anyone else it's a read that makes sense. $3 well spent!
Comment| 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
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5.0 out of 5 stars

Down-to-Earth Practical Advice
ByKim A.on August 29, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I love this book! The author presents a plan to help each of us achieve a higher level of health through well-reasoned, clearly explained steps that are possible for each of us to implement as soon as we decide to do so. Most self-help books are like that, I suppose. What sets this one aside is the rationale for each suggested step. Understanding why something is a good step and exactly how it will help is so beneficial. The author's tone is supportive throughout which I found very re-assuring. I was also impressed with the number of factors addressed. Obviously food and exercise are included, but you will also read about different ways to meditate (and how to do it!), grounding, navigating supplements (and even some things to do instead), and more. I learned so much reading this! Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Otakara Klettke!
Comment| 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?



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2018/04/07

Amazon.com: Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi: Jonathan Kis-Lev

Amazon.com: Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi: A Novel Based on the True Historic Correspondence and Mentorship Between Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi eBook: Jonathan Kis-Lev: Kindle Store




Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi: A Novel Based on the True Historic Correspondence and Mentorship Between Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi
Kindle Edition
by Jonathan Kis-Lev (Author)


4.3 out of 5 stars 558 customer reviews
Kindle
$9.22
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Product details

File Size: 4592 KB
Print Length: 526 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi brings a turbulent era to vivid life. All the conflicts and complexities of British India and Czarist Russia are mirrored in Kis-Lev's story. It's breathlessly exciting and heartbreaking by turns--an emotional and historical page-turner." --Laila Hoja, The Book Reviewer

"Painstakingly researched, beautifully hewn, compulsively readable--this enlightening literary journey takes us from Russia to India via South Africa and Great Britain, revealing remarkable historical details, dark family secrets, and bringing to life two of the men who shaped our world as we know it. A must read." --Maria von Klaus, Der Tag

"A triumphant, controversial, and fascinating plunge into the complexities of a mentor-mentee relationship at the turn of the 19th century. You'll never look at Gandhi or at Tolstoy the same way again." --Jo Levi, The Reviewer


"Author Jonathan Kis-Lev had performed tireless research. Whether it is detailing Tolstoy's life as a reluctant count with many serfs, or recounting the world of Gandhi as a young inexperienced lawyer in the racist South Africa and India, Kis-Lev clearly has done his homework. The result is breathtaking." --Nadia Joels, The Bookreview Club


"This is a stunning historical novel that will keep you up late, hoping the engaging story never ends. Highly, highly recommended!" --Dennis Clark, This Week


"A compelling, page-turning narrative. 'Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi' falls squarely into the groundbreaking category of fiction that re-examines history from a fresh, psychological point of view. It's smart, thoughtful and also just an old-fashioned good read." --Michael Sender, The Sender Report


"A powerful story for readers everywhere. Kis-Lev has brought readers a firsthand glimpse into one of history's most fascinating eras. A novel that brings to life what these two great men have endured in order to bring their light to the world. I was moved to tears." -- Joanna Berlinger, author, The Night's Sorrow


"Extremely moving and memorable. . . Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi should appeal strongly to historical fiction readers and to book clubs that adored Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale." -- Hue Knight, author, The Corner of My Heart

"Inspired by the actual correspondence between the two giants, Kis-Lev has woven together the stories of Gandhi, Tolstoy, as well as of Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana, into a riveting story that reveals the bravery, cruelty and hope at the beginning of the 20th century. This is a part of history that should never be forgotten." --Drake Eakin, Eakin-Bloomberg


"This is the kind of book I wish I had the courage to write--a profound, unsettling, and thoroughly captivating look at mentorship and love through the dark lens of racial oppression." --Mira Hudson, The Life of Mira


"Rich with historical detail and riveting to the end, Dear Tolstoy Yours Gandhi weaves the lives of two astonishing figures into a story of extraordinary moral power set against the harrowing backdrop of imperialism and oppression." --Aven K. Lint, author and speaker


"Riveting. . . Kis-Lev moves effortlessly across physical and ethical battlegrounds, and across the territory of the heart and soul. I find it hard to recall the last time I read a novel that moved me so deeply." --Abraham Miseler, author, Thinking Differently


"Fascinating read... A student-teacher story that will make your heart sing. Tolstoy and Gandhi come to life authentically, directed by Kis-Lev's detailed research and glittering prose." --Daily Preacher

From the Author
EXCERPT © All rights reserved, Goldsmith Press. Reprinted by permission:


ROME,

DECEMBER 1931


Tatiana Tolstoy-Sukhotin stood near the window, waiting.

The 67-year-old countess stared at the street below thinking, 'When will he arrive? The telegram said he'd arrive at three...'

She sat down on the couch in her little apartment. A moment later she got up and walked back to the window, thinking wistfully of the snow she loved in her childhood. She missed the snow.

The newspaper on her coffee table showed his photograph on the front page: those odd round spectacles, the brown skin, the smile with several teeth missing.

She wanted to be upset with this man for not arriving on time, but she found herself instead smiling back at the face covering the newspaper's front page.

She leaned forward and looked at the article again: "Gandhi Arrivando questa mattina a Roma."

She read the title again. Though she had only lived in Italy for a few years, she could understand Italian fairly well. It was very similar to Latin, of which she had an adequate knowledge. Her father had taught her well.

"Gandhi Arriving in Rome This Morning," she translated to herself, "The Indian leader to visit Prime Minister Benito Mussolini in the evening. In the morning he will be greeted by the naval cadets, and then taken to meet with government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dino Grandi. In the afternoon, prior to visiting Il Duce, Gandhi will be visiting the Tolstoy Museum in Rome."

She was glad the address was not mentioned. The last thing she wanted was a throng of people and the hideous reporters with their cameras. She had suffered because of them throughout her life, always chasing her father. At that moment she remembered with perfect clarity when her father was dying at the stationmaster's home in that forsaken place. She shivered remembering how the press nearly broke into his room there. What a terrifying experience.

She shuddered slightly--the memory of her father brought her pain. She looked at the drawing on the wall that she drew many years ago--22 years ago, to be exact. A portrait of her father in the year before his passing. Her father looking lost in his thoughts, almost daydreaming, his large white beard dissolving into the dark background.

She looked at the clock nervously. If he doesn't come soon, she thought, there will be no visit to the "Tolstoy Museum."

For the past two days she had been cleaning the downstairs room feverishly. The "museum" was one room, a small room she rented from the building's owner, which she dedicated to her father's legacy. It was all she could afford. But it was better than nothing.

Her father, with his socialistic ideals, left his works in the public domain. And even though her late mother was eventually able to win the rights back, as soon as the Communists took over, all the money was gone.

As she peeked out the window, she was surprised to realize how excited she was. This was only natural. She had followed Gandhi's career for over twenty years. It would be exciting for anyone to meet such a revered and celebrated leader.

But that was not it, she knew. She had met many leaders throughout her life. The fame did not move her.

It was her excitement to meet this one man. The one person about whom her father spoke with such admiration. To whom her father wrote his longest letter in his last months, when he would write no more than a paragraph to others. To the young Gandhi he wrote three full pages.

What was it about Gandhi that her father had recognized long before the Indian leader was famous? And how had her father come to admire the young Indian lawyer living in South Africa?

It was rare for her father to speak with so much admiration of anyone really. Her father criticized the Czar, scolded the Patriarch of Moscow, rebuked the army's generals. He laughed at other authors, he criticized almost every artist, including Chekov and even Shakespeare. He mocked his own children, and she was not spared from that.

And yet, this one Hindu, this one little man, somehow elicited only compliments from her father. How she had longed for that kind of approval from him.


But her father's approval was not to be.

She found herself fidgeting with her fingers like a schoolgirl, and tried to calm herself, but her thoughts kept drifting to her father.
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More about the author
Visit Amazon's Jonathan Kis-Lev Page

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Biography
From WIKIPEDIA:

Jonathan Kis-Lev is an Israeli award-winning author, artist and peace activist. He is the author of five novels and 10 nonfiction books and is the winner of the Bamahane Prize for Literature.

Born in Israel in 1985, Jonathan was involved in the Jewish-Arab peace movement beginning at age 11. In his memoir, My Quest for Peace, he writes of his first encounter with Palestinian children and how he was bewildered to find that they “didn’t hate” him. This experience led him to spend his teen years participating in numerous coexistence programs. At the age of 16 he was sent for two years to a UN model college, United World College, in Vancouver, Canada. Upon returning to Israel Kis-Lev co-founded several peace programs between Christians, Muslims and Jews. At age 26 he was taken under the wing of Israel’s late President, Shimon Peres, who encouraged him to share his view of Middle Eastern peace in a book, which became his first book. Kis-Lev became an advisor to Peres and was a regular member of Peres’ Young Leaders Forum.

Kis-Lev lives in Israel’s Galilee with his wife, Hallel, and their daughter, Sarah.

Publication Date: October 28, 2017
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English Lit major
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative story about two historically important people.
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018

An easy read. I really learned a lot about the humanity of Tolstoy. The characterization of Tatiana and of Gandhi gave me pause - it was hard to believe the instant intimacy they established upon their first and only meeting. The obvious word choice mistakes and spelling errors throughout the novel were perplexing for such a highly touted novel. I would recommend the book.
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Jennifer McCarthy
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not a page-turner
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
The info I learned about Tolstoy and Gandhi was interesting and revealing. The format was a unique vehicle for compressing the compiled info about the two, but overall it was a bit slow.
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vijaya sambandam
5.0 out of 5 stars My interpretation of this remarkable friendship and truly an educative relationship.
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2018
Verified Purchase
Life journey is preprogrammed and yet executed either splendidly or sad spoil!
This story tells a real happening that ended splendidly for human race!

Thanks to the author for writing.
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Robert J. Teeter
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea marred by sloppy editing
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2018
Note: This is a review of "Dear Tolstoy, Yours Gandhi" by Jonathan Kis-Lev. Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.

I am interested in both Tolstoy and Gandhi and wanted to know more about their connection and correspondence. This book adds a fictional framework that, for me, didn't add much to my understanding. It could have been a 100-page essay with footnotes and bibliography. Instead, it's five times as long with few indications of sources of the "thousands of pages" its author claims to have reviewed.

In addition to editing for length, this book could have used a good editor to correct spelling and punctuation errors and non-idiomatic English. In an interview at the back of the book, the author says he self-published this book because he cares about his readers. This reader was pained by the many errors that would have been corrected by a good editor at a publishing firm.

If you want to read the letters between Tolstoy and Gandhi, with a few other pieces (Tolstoy's "Letter to a Hindu," Gandhi's notes on his Tolstoy Farm), I recommend "Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy Letters, " edited with an introduction by B. Srinivasa Murthy (Long Beach Publications, 1987).
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Many of the other reviews on this page are for a different book, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
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Louis Fischer. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas

Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas





The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and IdeasPaperback – November 12, 2002

by Mahatma Gandhi (Author), Louis Fischer (Author),

aperback: 368 pages

Publisher: Vintage; 2nd ed. edition (November 12, 2002)



f 5 stars

An Essential Read

ByD.Beyeron February 18, 2017

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

I reached for Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., men of integrity, courage and selfless service, when I found myself despairing the torrent of news headlining combustible current national and world events. The truth and beauty of Gandhi's words, made digestible by editor Louis Fischer and Vintage Spiritual Classics, allowed me to believe again in our common humanity and dignity. If reading a book such as this is perceived as an "act of prayer," than for me, Gandhi embodied the spirit and love for mankind I imagine God to possess.

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4.0 out of 5 starsGandhi for the Common Man

ByMichael GriswoldVINE VOICEon January 14, 2013

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

The Essential Gandhi edited by Louis Fischer provides the reader with a solid introduction into Gandhi's' life, work, and ideas in his own words. It's not a biography in the conventional understanding of the word, but rather a hybrid mix of biographical note and philosophical articulation of the principles that have made Gandhi one of the most beloved historical figures of the last century. Gandhi was not a perfect man as illustrated by the sections on meat eating and his early religious struggles in the first part of the book. That's really important because noted historical figures sometimes take on a pre-godly reverence that blinds us to their flaws. Highly recommended book on Gandhi that just may cause one to step back and consider their own life.



5.0 out of 5 starsIt is Essential!

ByWill Jeromon July 6, 2008

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

I have been researching Gandhi for a number of years, so I can claim some expertise in evaluating this book. Simply put, I am not sure why I didn't get to it earlier, as it is a superior collection of Gandhi's writings, blended in skillfully with some of Fischer's own writings about Gandhi.

This anthology goes beyond mere collection in that it also is organized with attention to telling the story of Gandhi's life chronologically. If you know the story of Gandhi well, this book will capture some of the rare gems of Gandhi's thought, as well as his controversial ideas.



If you don't know Gandhi's life story yet, start with Fischer's Gandhi: His Life and Message to the World, a short, concise summary. The Essential Gandhi succeeds in being just that: a treasury of thought of one of the most important men of the past century.



5.0 out of 5 starsA Message for Today

ByTony Theilon September 2, 2003

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Gandhi's words have never been so pertinent as they are today. This is an anthology of his writings, edited by topic in chronological order. It's an autobiography revealing Gandhi's evolution from a fearful young man, afraid of the dark, to a fearless leader who feared no rebuke by an empire. More than an aesthete in a modern world, Gandhi's complexity is revealed in each passage as he penitently reveals his transformation into selfless service and living simply. His words and actions inspired others to follow without fear of retaliation and could guide today's leaders to a peaceful resolve. The book reads like a primer on non-violence.

Eknath Easwaran's 18 page Preface is worth the price of the 339 page paperbound book.

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5.0 out of 5 starsHighlighted most of the Book; Great primer on non violent action

ByAmazon Customeron February 9, 2017

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Reading this, humans are not much different in their struggles for equity than 100 years ago. We face the same biases by the dominant classes, the same challenges in trying to create change, and can use many of the same spiritual and political techniques to work for justice as Gandhi taught. Probably highlighted 1/3 of the book. Yes, read it.



5.0 out of 5 starsGandhi can change a life

ByBen L.on June 4, 2016

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

This book is amazing. It's Gandhi's own words from collections of his writings with brief explanatory notes on the historical context as well. The book is an overview of Gandhi's life and philosophy. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this book, and the words and actions of Gandhi, have the power to inspire anyone. I had no idea Gandhi was fond of Tolstoy and communicated with him.

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5.0 out of 5 starsWell organized, inspiring

ByPBCon June 8, 2008

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

I've read a total of 3 books about Mahatma Gandhi, all of them stemming from his own writings. This is the best out of those three books.



It is well organized and takes the most crucial parts of his writings and puts them in an order that is coherent and easy to read. The notes by the editor also make it easy for someone who does not know the whole history surrounding Gandhi's plight. She sets the setting and environment with each chapter making sure the reader knows what is going on regardless of their previous knowledge of the situation.



This is why I always suggest this book to anyone who wants to start learning about this amazing man. It is very inspirational, and I have highlighted and reflected on quite a few passages. This is one of my most lent books since everyone hears about and references this man, but very few actually know anything about him.



This is the best book to allow people to be introduced to his ideas and beliefs.

Comment| 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?




2018/03/31

Review: The Slow Professor, by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber | THE Books

Review: The Slow Professor, by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber | THE Books



The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy,

by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber



Book of the week: Academics need to hit the brakes and work to change the system they’re in, says Emma Rees

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George Harrison wrote the Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun holed up at Eric Clapton’s house, skiving a meeting with the executives at Apple Records.



Despite its optimism, the song always sounds deeply melancholic to me because I can’t hear it without whooshing back through time to a Sunday evening years ago: I’m in my childhood home, in my flannelette nightie, freshly bathed, homework done and school shoes ready, watching the closing credits – at that time set to Harrison’s song – of the Holiday programme on the BBC. Despite all its wistful jingling and catchiness, that one song signalled the inescapable, stifling fact that the weekend was Over. To become an academic is to submit oneself to that Sunday evening feeling, seemingly in perpetuity.



The mental health of academics and administrators is at risk as never before. We might, on any given term-time Sunday evening (or, indeed, on any weekday night), prefer to be a skiver, like Harrison, but we find that the pressures of what my students term “adulting” are simply too great to hide from. The authors of The Slow Professor surely know that Sunday sensation too, and their plea is that, in the interests of self-care, we should all slow down and shift “our thinking from ‘what is wrong with us?’ to ‘what is wrong with the academic system?’”.



The Slow Food movement was initiated more than two decades ago by the activist Carlo Petrini. Local producers were celebrated over supermarket conglomerates, the detrimental effects of fast food on local communities were exposed, and a healthy kind of individuality thumbed its mindful nose at cultural homogeneity. Petrini’s work gained traction – sedately, of course – and in 2011 the Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman published his best-seller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, urging us to live “deliberate, effortful, and orderly” lives. Once it’s understood, the logic of the Slow Movement is irresistible. What Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber are doing in The Slow Professor is protesting against the “corporatization of the contemporary university”, and reminding us of a kind of “good” selfishness; theirs is a self-help book that recognises the fact that an institution can only ever be as healthy as the sum of its parts.



In their endeavour to “foster greater openness about the ways in which the corporate university affects our professional practice and well-being”, Berg and Seeber openly echo the tone and agenda of Stefan Collini’s What are Universities For?. And “well-being” ought to be a top priority for what the authors portray as a culture that “dismisses turning inwards and disavows emotion in pursuit of hyper-rational and economic goals”. Just last month, Times Higher Education ran a remarkable first-hand account of one academic’s experiences with mental illness. “In my own case,” wrote that anonymous contributor, “I know how vulnerable I am to feeling alone and unable to cope as I drown beneath a seemingly endless avalanche of work.”



This book is an intervention into precisely that “avalanche”; a mountain-rescue effort for the knackered academic. Its “Slow Professor manifesto” has three aims:



  • “to alleviate work stress, 
  • preserve humanistic education, and 
  • resist the corporate university”. 


But it’s definitely not a joyless philosophy that the authors share: “We see our book as uncovering the secret life of the academic,” they write, “revealing not only her pains but also her pleasures.” They offer solutions, too, in addition to identifying what’s broken (they are writing from the perspective of members of the Canadian academy, which, as they present it, seems virtually indistinguishable from the British one). In critiquing those guides to time management that favour speeding through a punitive checklist over sitting in meaningful contemplation, they get it absolutely right: “It is not so much a matter of managing our time as it is of sustaining our focus in a culture that threatens it.



The Slow Professor is a welcome corrective to texts such as Gregory Colón Semenza’s frankly obnoxious Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century (2005), a text that the authors cite. Semenza reassures us that “if on a Thursday I realize that I’ll need to read two books and grade ten papers by Monday, I’ll tackle the papers on Friday afternoon since I can more easily sneak in reading at various times and places over the weekend”. How did we reach this point of feeling the need to “sneak in” work when we could be spending time with our families, with our pets or with Tyrion Lannister? (Asking for a friend.) We shouldn’t punish ourselves for working for a living, but we should ask more questions of a university culture that seems to require us to live wholly for our work. The authors’ solutions aren’t groundbreaking (“We need to do less”), but there is something oddly comforting about seeing them articulated in such an engagingly open way.



Berg and Seeber came in for some pretty unkind pre-publication criticism. Some bloggers and reviewers responded angrily to what they perceived as the authors’ privilege: it’s far easier to reflect on life in a university, and, indeed, to slow down, when your contract of employment is secure, and you know for certain that you can make the rent. But the authors do acknowledge their privilege: “Those of us in tenured positions, given the protection that we enjoy, have an obligation to try to improve in our own ways the working climate for all of us.” I liked this tone of advocacy; it’s really hard to have to tell an enthusiastic grad student that she may never get the academic job she dreams of – but it’s not half as hard as it is to be the one on the receiving end of that unpalatable truth.



And it’s important to remember that Berg and Seeber are agitating (if one can “agitate” in a slow and unstressed way) for a complete cultural shift. This, I fear, is impossible in the UK, where colleagues still speak of “elite” universities, and organisations such as the Bullingdon Club persist. Indeed, the Green Paper and the looming spectre of the teaching excellence framework will further consolidate the divisions that already exist between higher education institutions, and hopes for anything like a universal implementation of a philosophy of slowness will certainly get trampled in the unseemly clown-car scramble in which we’ll soon see UK universities participating. But I admire the authors’ optimism in expressing even the possibility of something better than the status quo. The Slow Professor, as Berg and Seeber themselves put it, is both “idealistic in nature”, and “a call to action”.



Finally, this is a very short book. And that’s no bad thing: I’m really busy and I’m really tired and reading for pleasure sometimes drops off my radar. But writing book reviews is, I believe, a valuable act that can provide extra ballast for the already flimsy barricades that so many of us are trying to erect against the juggernaut of the neoliberal agenda. David Beer, reader in sociology at the University of York, recently argued this case quite brilliantly in these pages. And if you’re still sceptical about what big things a little book like this might do, I leave you with this perfect gem from the manifesto: “Talking about professors’ stress is not self-indulgent; not talking about it plays into the corporate model”. 



If I had the time, I’d stitch those words into a sampler and hang it over my desk.

---



Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at the University of Chester, where she is director of the Institute of Gender Studies.

========



The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy

By Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber

University of Toronto Press, 128pp, £15.99

ISBN 9781442645561 and 663107 (e-book)

Published 20 May 2016



The authors



Authors Maggie Berg and Barbara SeeberMaggie Berg, professor of English at Queen’s University, Kingston, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and raised on Hayling Island. “My dad had a heart attack at the age of 43 and left my mum with five young children (I was the oldest). Although she had left school at 16 to become a hairdresser, Mum got herself a job with the Portsmouth Evening News and we kids helped to bring up each other. We were what is now called underprivileged. I was the first person in my family to go to university, and if it hadn’t been for the grants system at the time I would not have done so. Because of this background, I have never fitted comfortably in academia; it has left me with an awkward combination of gratitude and scepticism. However, I believe it has also made me a better teacher.”



She now lives in Kingston Ontario, “with Scott Wallis – who is a brilliant visual artist and a preparator in Queen’s University gallery – for 30 years. We are very different: I get up at 6am and go for a run; he stays at home smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. It works. Neither of us drives and we will never own a car. Our daughter Rebecca used to be annoyed by this, but now she is 26 she herself drives. Rebecca, who is the loveliest human being I could ever have imagined, is pursuing an MA in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. I asked her one day whether she would practice couples counselling on me and her dad; she was horrified and flatly refused.”



What is the wisest book she has read of late? “I have passed on, and sometimes made my students read, Tom Chatfield’s How to Thrive in the Digital Age, Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation, and Dave Eggers’s novel The Circle. I realise just now that they have something in common: they urge us to consider that the very technologies that enhance our lives also, in the words of Chatfield, ‘have the potential to denude us of what it means to thrive as human beings’.”



Asked whether she believes that academics are complicit in their own oppression, she replies: “Barbara and I would certainly not argue that academics are ‘oppressed’: we are privileged to have worthwhile jobs that we love, and that have flexible work hours; some of us are protected by tenure. The corporate university’s exploitation of casual labour impoverishes the climate for all of us, making it full of fear and resentment. We do argue that academics are prone to overwork for a variety of reasons: we have excessively high self-expectations; we are engaged in work which by its very nature is never done; and, above all, we are subject to guilt as a result of what Stephan Collini (in What Are Universities For?) calls the mythical taxpayer.



“In an effort not to seem either hopelessly outdated or privileged, academics struggle to meet the raised expectations imposed by the corporate university: to teach larger classes and to find innovative ways to do so, to adapt to new learning technologies, and to cope with the downloading of administrative tasks. In addition, we don’t have time to read works on the profession, which would give us a much-needed critical perspective.”



What gives her hope? “ My students and my colleagues. My students because they crave real human connection and intellectual discussion; they want to be far more than ‘clients’. My colleagues because they are trying to resist, in their own ways, the dehumanising and anti-intellectual effects of the number-crunching corporate university.”



Her co-author, Barbara Seeber, professor of English at Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, was born in Innsbruck in Austria, and lived there until she was 13, when her family moved to the West Coast of Canada.



“The slow food movement started in Italy but its principles are also cherished in Austria, so I grew up in a culture that insists on everyday pleasures and the conviviality of sharing a meal and conversation. I think that the immigrant experience has shaped me in some fundamental ways. It undoubtedly has enriched my perspective, but it also has led to feeling that I don’t quite fit in (both in Canada and in Europe).



“In terms of my work as a professor of English literature, being an immigrant also has had both positive and negative consequences: many academics suffer from the ‘imposter syndrome’, and working in your second language certainly intensifies that. But it also has given me the freedom that can come with approaching topics from the outside. For example, my primary area of research is Jane Austen and because I didn’t grow up hearing about Aunt Jane, I didn’t have preconceived ideas about her work.”



Seeber lives in St. Catharines, “a small city in the Niagara Peninsula (famed for its wine and its falls) near Toronto, Ontario. I am fortunate to share my house with two lovely companions: Georgie, a Shih Tzu, and Frida, a Chantilly cat, who are best friends. Before them, I lived with a very special cat named Darcy, named after the hero in Pride and Prejudice.”



If she could change one thing about the Canadian university sector, what would it be? “I wish that higher education would be tuition free. Higher education, like healthcare, is a public good.”



Asked whether she feels that academics too easy to take advantage of and too slow to stand up for themselves, Seeber replies: “Absolutely not. We do not blame individual academics for letting the corporatisation of higher education happen. There are many academics who are actively resisting it.



“However, we do think that the academic system militates against resistance in a number of ways. Academics are taught to blame themselves (most of us think that if we are not keeping up, then we are the problem). Academic culture is highly competitive and discourages frankness about struggle. And the reality is that increasing workloads, accountability measures, casualisation of labour and scarcer resources make it difficult to take the time for reflection and counter action. Most of us are just trying to keep up with whatever seems most urgent. Time poverty is one of the consequences of corporatisation and it also facilitates corporate values taking hold.”



What gives her hope? “Stefan Collini’s What are Universities For? gives me a lot of hope because his argument is so compelling and because he makes me laugh. Laughter is always a good thing because it lets you find a place of strength in the middle of stress and anxiety and powerlessness. I am very heartened by the positive responses Maggie and I have been getting to our work from colleagues and students. That means people want change.



“In terms of my personal life, I find hope in books that suggest that transformation is possible, such as texts on neuroplasticity like Rick Hanson’s Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (and I am not afraid to admit that I have a healthy collection of self-help books of all stripes). And, finally, observing and reading about interspecies friendship makes me feel joyful and gives me hope for a better future.”



Karen Shook




2018/03/30

당신들, 해선 안 될 일을 잔인하게도 했구려 - 오마이뉴스



당신들, 해선 안 될 일을 잔인하게도 했구려 - 오마이뉴스




당신들, 해선 안 될 일을 잔인하게도 했구려[이 시대 읽어야 할 명저 12] 
피터 싱어의 <동물해방>으로 보는 인간과 동물의 도덕철학
11.03.29 15:59l최종 업데이트 11.03.31 15:06l
박찬운(chanpark62)

꿈에 나타나는 살처분 현장의 생지옥

나는 채식주의자도 아니다. 더욱 동물애호가도 아니다. 그 흔한 개나 고양이를 집에서 키워 본 적도 없다. 그럼에도 요즈음 꿈자리가 뒤숭숭하다. 살처분 현장에서 죽어가는 소와 돼지가 자꾸 꿈에 나타난다.

트럭에 실려 온 돼지들이 구덩이 안으로 떨어진다. 대부분 살아 있는 것들이다. 일부 돼지들은 매질과 발길질이 가해지면서 구덩이 속으로 들어간다. 그것들도 자신의 운명을 아는지 필사적으로 구덩이에서 나오려 한다. 발버둥치는 돼지들 머리 위에서 굴착기가 찍어 누른다. 꽥꽥거리는 비명이 온 천지를 진동한다.



▲ '동물사랑실천협회'가 경기도 이천 대월면 송라리, 군량리 두 곳의 매몰지에서 지난 1월 11일 2천여마리의 돼지를 산 채로 구덩이에 밀어 널어 살처분하는 현장 영상을 공개했다.
ⓒ 동물사랑실천협회 제공

관련사진보기

생지옥이 따로 없다. 어떤 곳에서는 이런 식으로 반나절 만에 2만 마리의 돼지가 살처분되었다고 한다. 지난해 11월 구제역이 처음 발생한 뒤 이렇게 매몰 살처분된 가축 수가 무려 350여만 마리에 달하고 그 보상액도 1조 원을 넘었다. 환경문제는 대재앙의 문턱에 있고, 살처분 현장에 투입된 공무원들은 과로로 사망하거나 정신적 스트레스 때문에 심각한 후유증에 시달리고 있다.

나는 오늘 이 대란에 대하여 한 마디 말하지 않을 수 없다. 살처분에 따른 보상문제는 이야기하지 않을 것이다. 대재앙 수준의 환경문제도 이야기하지 않을 것이다. 내가 이야기하고자 하는 것은 인간과 동물의 철학적 관계이다. 우리의 머릿속을 지배하는 동물관에 지각 변동이 없고서는 이 같은 일은 또 일어날 수 있기 때문이다.

동물은 단지 물건일 뿐인가

마하트마 간디는 "한 국가의 위대함과 도덕성은 그 나라의 동물들이 어떻게 대우받고 있는지를 보면 알 수 있다"고 하였다. 한평생을 성현의 반열에 맞추어 산 그다운 말이다. 그러나 이런 말이 어느 사회나 통용되는 것은 아닐 것이다. 우리 사회에서 아무리 인권을 강조하는 사람이라 할지라도 그것은 오로지 사람에 대한 문제이지 동물에 대해서까지 말하는 것 같지는 않다.

우리 사회에서 동물은 법률적으로 철저히 '물건'으로 취급된다. 물건은 '인권'의 대상이 아니라 사람의 '물권'의 대상이 된다. 그것은 소유와 점유의 객체가 되고, 그 권리자인 인간에게 처분권이 있다. 그것은 다른 물건과 마찬가지로 사용되고 처분되고 심지어는 필요가 없으면 폐기된다. 이것이 사실 350여만 마리의 소와 돼지가 생매장되어도 그냥 넘어가는 이유이기도 하다.

물론 우리 사회는 오랜 기간 불교의 영향을 받아 왔다. 따라서 남다른 생명사상을 가진 사람들도 많다. 이들에게는 살아 있는 생명체는 모두 소중한 것이며 그에 대한 살생은 절대적으로 금기시된다. 하지만 이러한 사상이 현대를 살아가는 우리에게 도통 영향을 끼치지 못하는 것이 현실이다. 동물은 그저 '물건'일 뿐이다.

새로운 패러다임의 탄생

그런데 불교의 영향도 받지 않은 서구에서는 오래전부터 동물에 대한 철학적 논쟁이 있었다. 그 핵심은 동물이 과연 단순한 물건인가의 논쟁이었다. 이 논쟁은 인간중심의 기독교적 신학과도 관계가 깊다. 중세를 살아오는 동안 유럽인들의 머릿속은 하나님이 다른 동물과 특별히 구별하여 만든 존재가 자신이라는 생각이 지배하였다.

그러나 이러한 사고도 르네상스 이후 과학의 발달과 함께 점점 회의하지 않을 수 없는 상황이 되었다. 더욱 진화론적 입장이 과학의 중심에 서면서 오로지 인간만이 '사랑하고 즐기며 고통을 느낄 수 있는 존재'인가에 의문을 갖게 되었다. 수억 년의 진화 속에서 어떻게 갑자기 인류만이 그런 것의 주체가 될 수 있는가에 대한 근본적인 질문이었다.

이러한 회의는 동물을 다시 보게 하는 상황을 만들었다. 무엇인가 다른 패러다임 속에서 인간과 동물의 관계를 만들어 가야 한다는 사상이 싹트기 시작한 것이다. 그리고 이런 흐름은 동물보호와 복지로 이어졌고, 20세기 후반 유럽 사회는 동물보호와 복지에 관한 각종 규범을 만들어 시행하게 되었다. 이제 유럽 국가들은 과학실험에 사용되는 동물, 식용으로 길러지는 동물들 그리고 야생동물들에 훨씬 인간적인 환경을 만들어 주기 위한 프로그램을 실시하고 있다.

종차별주의를 반대하는 <동물해방>



▲ 피터 싱어의 <동물 해방>.
ⓒ 인간사랑

관련사진보기
오늘 우리는 인간과 동물의 관계를 철학적으로 정립할 필요성을 느낀다. 이것은 그저 고답적 도덕철학이 아니다. 왜냐하면 우리가 어떤 동물에 대한 도덕철학을 갖느냐에 따라 이번과 같은 구제역에서 대응이 전혀 달라지기 때문이다.

이 같은 것을 생각하면 오늘 소개하는 철학자 피터 싱어의 동물에 관한 도덕철학은 충분히 음미할 만하다. 피터 싱어는 호주 출신의 도덕철학자로 1975년 그의 주저 <동물해방, Animal Liberation>(김성한 옮김, 인간사랑 펴냄)을 세상에 내놓았다.

<동물해방>은 출판된 이래 동물의 권리(animal rights) 분야의 바이블로 통한다. 그만큼 이 책은 인간과 동물의 관계가 어떻게 되어야 할지 깊은 통찰력을 주는 책이다. 이 책은 동물의 권리를 주장하는 사람에게나 동물의 복지를 주장하는 사람에게나 할 것 없이 자신들의 입장을 철학적으로 전달할 때 필요한 논리를 제공해 왔다.


피터 싱어(Peter Singer)는 누구인가


▲ 피터 싱어(Peter Singer) 홈페이지(http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger)에 소개된 사진.
ⓒ Denise Applewhite/Princet

관련사진보기
피터 싱어(Peter Singer)는 1946년 호주 멜버른에서 태어났다. 그는 호주 멜버른 대학과 영국 옥스퍼드 대학에서 수학했다. 철학자로서 그가 평생 관심을 갖는 것은 실천철학이다. 따라서 그의 철학은 응용철학이라고도 불린다. 그동안 그는 민주주의와 불복종, 안락사, 낙태, 시험관 아기 등과 같은 현대사회에서 매일같이 일어나는 윤리적 문제에 어떻게 대처할 것인가를 고민해 왔다. 동물에 관한 관심사도 그러한 그의 철학 태도에서 나온 매우 현실적인 철학문제이자 윤리문제이다.

그는 <동물해방>을 비롯하여 <민주주의와 불복종>, <실천윤리학>, <범위확장>, <마르크스>, <헤겔>, <동물공장>, <재생산혁명>, <아기가 살아야 하는가>, <이렇게 살아도 괜찮은가?>, <삶과 죽음에 대한 회상>, <세계화의 윤리>,<선과 악의 대통령> 등이 있다.

그는 동물에 대한 철학적 관심을 현실적 운동으로 연결시킨 사람으로 호주 동물권익 옹호단체인 동물해방의 초대 회장과 호주와 뉴질랜드 동물협회연맹 회장을 역임하였다. 그는 현재 프린스턴 대학의 인간가치연구센터의 석좌교수로 재직 중이다.




종차별주의의 역사적 기원

싱어가 말하고자 하는 핵심은 인간의 도덕적 관심에 동물을 포함해야 한다는 것이다. 그는 동물이 단지 인간의 종(species)에 해당하지 않는다는 이유로 차별해서는 안 된다고 한다. 즉, 그의 동물에 대한 도덕철학의 핵심은 종차별주의를 반대함으로써, 종간의 원칙적 평등을 주장하는 것이다.

서구 역사에서 종차별주의의 근원을 찾다 보면 로마와 기독교의 영향을 거론하지 않을 수 없다. 로마제국은 콜로세움 등의 원형경기장에서 허구한 날 투기회를 열어 수많은 동물들(사자, 호랑이, 코끼리, 하마, 코뿔소, 황소, 사슴 심지어는 악어나 뱀들까지)을 사람들의 호기심 속에서 죽였다. 피에 대한 백성들의 갈망이 너무도 강했기 때문에 투기회는 곡식을 분배하는 것보다도 중요한 행사였다.


기독교는 인간의 존엄성을 신성시하였기 때문에 인권의 신장에 크나 큰 기여를 하였다. 그러나 동물과의 관계에서는 인간과 다른 종간의 차별을 공고히 한 종교로서 기록되어야 한다. 종교 중에는 불교와 같이 모든 생명의 신성함을 가르치는 종교도 있지만 기독교는 철저히 인간 중심의 종교이다. 기독교는 오로지 인간의 생명만이 신성하다는 관념을 널리 전파했다. 싱어는 이에 대해 이렇게 말한다.

"… 새로운 교의(기독교)는 여러 면에서 진보적이었으며, 그리하여 로마인의 제한된 도덕적 영역을 엄청나게 확장시켰다. 하지만 인간 아닌 다른 종에 대한 처우와 관련시켜 생각해 볼 때, 그러한 교의는 구약성서에서의 인간 아닌 동물들의 낮은 지위를 더욱 공고히 하고 저하시켰다. 구약성서에는 인간이 다른 종을 지배해야 한다고 쓰여 있지만, 그래도 거기에서는 다른 종들의 고통에 대한 희미한 관심이나마 찾아볼 수 있었다. 하지만 신약성서에서는 동물에 대한 가혹 행위에 반대하는 어떠한 명령도 찾아볼 수 없으며, 동물의 이익을 고려하는 권고 또한 찾아볼 수가 없다." (324쪽)

싱어는 종차별주의가 사실상 인종차별·성차별주의의 연장선에서 이해해야 한다고 한다. 종차별이 도덕적으로 인정될 수 있는 근거는 인종차별이나 성차별과 같이 지적 능력에 대한 그릇된 믿음이었다. 즉, 유색인종은 백인에 비해, 여성은 남성에 비해, 지적 능력이 차이가 있다든지 하는 믿음은 인종차별과 성차별을 정당화한 오도된 믿음이었다.

이와 같은 믿음은 종차별주의에도 그대로 적용되었다. 즉, 인간이 다른 종의 동물에 대해서 차별을 할 수 있는 것은 인간과 그들 간의 지적 능력의 차이 때문이라는 것이다. 동물은 인간에 비해 하등동물이니 거기에 걸맞은 대우를 받는 것은 당연하다는 것이다.

그러나 오늘날 인종차별이나 성차별을 하면서 그 근거로 지적 능력 운운하면 그 사람은 정신이상자에 불과하다. 따라서 종차별주의에도 이러한 새로운 믿음은 동일하게 적용되어야 한다는 것이 싱어의 생각이다. 인간과 동물의 차이를 지적 능력 운운하며 그 차별을 정당화할 수 없다는 것이다. 만일 그것을 인정하면 무뇌아로 태어난 아기는 침팬지보다 그 지능이 못하니 그 생명권을 연장할 이유가 없다. 싱어는 이렇게 말한다.

"설령 좀 더 나은 지적 능력을 소유한다고 해도 자신의 목적을 위해 한 사람이 다른 사람을 이용할 수는 없다. 이것이 사실이라면 좀 더 나은 지적인 능력을 소유하고 있다고 해도 그로 인해 인간에게 인간 아닌 존재를 착취할 권한이 부여되지는 않는 것이다." (41-42쪽)

쾌고감수 존재로서의 동물



▲ 지난 10일 국회 본청 앞에서 열린 구제역 대재앙 비상시국선언대회에 참석한 동물자유연대 회원이 돼지가 생매장 되는 사진 앞에서 고개를 떨구고 있다.
ⓒ 남소연

관련사진보기

종차별주의가 잘못된 도덕관념이라면 그 근거를 어디에서 찾아야 할까. 이것이 바로 <동물해방>에서 싱어가 말하고자 하는 그의 철학의 핵심이다. 도대체 우리는 왜 인간 아닌 존재에게도 평등의 도덕론을 펼쳐야 하는가. 그 대답은 싱어의 공리주의에 있다.

싱어는 공리주의 철학자로 알려져 있다. 그는 쾌락과 고통을 느낄 수 있는 존재(sentient beings, 철학에서는 이를 '쾌고감수 존재'라 한다)의 목표는 쾌락을 극대화하고 고통을 최소화하는 것으로 본다. 따라서 사람 이외의 동물도 최소한 쾌고감수 존재인 한 이러한 공리주의가 적용되지 못할 바가 없다는 것이다.

싱어가 인간 아닌 동물에게도 공리주의가 적용될 수 있다는 논리를 펼 수 있게 된 것은 공리주의의 창시자인 제레미 벤담의 영향이 컸다. 벤담은 일찍이 평등의 개념을 이익의 동등고려(principle of equal consideration of interests)로 이해하였다. 이것은 동일한 이익에는 동일한 고려가 있어야 한다는 원칙이다.

벤담은 이 원칙을 사람 사이에서만 아니라 동물에게까지도 확장될 수 있다는 생각을 하였다. 왜냐하면 동물에게도 고통을 느낄 수 있는 능력은 사람과 다르지 않는 것이고, 그렇다면 동물도 사람과 같이 고려될 이익이 있다는 것이다. 싱어는 이를 이렇게 표현한다.

"고통과 즐거움을 느낄 수 있는 능력은 한 존재자가 이익을 갖는다고 할 때의 필요충분 조건이다. 가령 쥐는 차여서 길에 굴러다니지 않을 이익을 분명 가지고 있다. 왜냐하면 쥐는 차이게 될 경우 고통을 느낄 것이기 때문이다." (43쪽)

공리주의와 동물에 대한 처우

싱어는 한 행동으로부터 기인하는 쾌락과 고통의 총량이라는 차원에서 가치를 계산한다. 이 방법은 소수에게 고통을 줄지라도 다수에게 쾌락이나 고통의 감소를 가져다준다면 이를 허용한다. 따라서 싱어에게 있어서는 동물을 의학적 연구 용도로 사용하는 것은 그것 외에는 다른 방법이 없고 많은 사람을 구하기 위한 것이라면 허용된다. 왜냐하면 이러한 행동에서 비롯되는 '선(good)'이 이것으로 인해 발생하는 동물에 대한 고통을 훨씬 능가하기 때문이다.

하지만 동물을 식이용으로 사용하거나 화장품 시험용으로 사용하는 것은 비도덕적이다. 왜냐하면 그러한 행동에서 비롯되는 '선'은 비교적 경미하고 그것 아닌 다른 방법으로도 목적을 달성할 수 있기 때문이다. 따라서 싱어의 동물에 대한 도덕관은 자연스레 채식주의로 연결된다. 채식을 하면서도 인간이 살 수도 있는데 굳이 동물을 죽여 이를 식용으로 할 필요는 없다는 것이다.

싱어에게 있어서 중요한 것은 동물에게 본질적인 가치를 부여해야 한다는 점이다. 동물은 결코 인간의 목적을 위해 사용되는 수단이 아니라는 것이다. 그렇다고 해서 싱어가 동물이 인간과 동일한 권리를 누릴 수 있다고 보는 것은 아니다. 그는 분명히 종차별주의를 반대하는 것이 모든 생명에 동등한 가치가 있다는 것을 의미한다는 것을 의미하지는 않는다고 말한다.

동물의 본질적 가치는 그 쾌고감수의 정도(sentience level)에 따라 달라져야 하는데, 인간의 경우는 동물이 갖지 못하는 경우(예, 미래에 대한 고통의 예측)라도 고통을 느낄 수 있으므로 다른 동물보다 높은 가치를 지닌다고 할 수 있다. 따라서 불가피하게 과학실험을 해야 한다면 인간에 대한 생체실험보다는 동물에 대한 실험이 낫다. 그것은 인간에 대한 생체실험의 고통이 동물에 비해 더 크기 때문이다. 인간은 생체실험 자체의 고통도 느끼지만 생체실험의 공포에서 오는 고통도 느끼는 존재이기 때문이다.

"… 그런데 인간 아닌 동물을 대상으로 한 동일한 실험은 상대적으로 적은 고통을 야기할 것이다. 왜냐하면 동물들은 납치되어 실험 대상이 될 가능성으로 인해 고통을 느끼지는 않을 것이기 때문이다. 물론 이것이 동물들을 대상으로 하는 실험이 옳다는 것을 의미하지는 않는다. 이는 굳이 실험이 행해져야 한다면, 정상적인 성인보다는 동물을 사용하는 것이 낫다고 말할 이유가 있음을 말하고 있을 뿐이다." (55쪽)

싱어는 인간이라는 이유만으로 인간이 다른 피조물보다 더 높은 가치가 있다고 생각하는 것은 종차별로서 허용될 수 없다고 한다. 싱어에게 있어 현대의 동물해방운동은 19세기 노예해방운동과 같은 선상에 있다. 즉, 인종차별주의를 극복하여 인간해방으로 나간 것과 같이 종차별주의를 극복하여 동물해방으로 나가야 한다는 것이다.

결론적으로 싱어에게 있어 인간을 포함한 모든 동물, 적어도 쾌고감수 능력을 가진 존재는 모두 평등하다. 이것이 싱어가 우리에게 말하고 싶은 그의 동물에 대한 도덕철학의 결론이다.

동물복지론과 동물의 5대 자유



▲ '동물사랑실천협회'가 경기도 이천 대월면 송라리, 군량리 두 곳의 매몰지에서 지난 1월 11일 2천여마리의 돼지를 산 채로 구덩이에 밀어 널어 살처분하는 현장 영상을 공개했다.
ⓒ 동물사랑실천협회 제공

관련사진보기

이제 싱어와 같이 종차별주의에 반대하는 도덕철학이 오늘날 서구에서 어떤 반향을 일으키고 있는지를 알아보자. 나는 최근 몇 년 동안 이 문제에 관심을 갖고 다양한 정보를 수집해 왔다. 그 결과 이러한 새로운 도덕철학은 동물복지론으로 이어졌다는 것을 발견하였다. 복지(welfare)는 통상 '기본적인 욕구가 충족되고 고통이 최소화되는 행복한 상태'라고 정의된다. 따라서 동물복지란 동물에게 이러한 상태를 제공할 인간의 책무를 말한다고 할 수 있다.

유럽에서 동물복지론이 본격적으로 논의되어 제도화된 것은 1960년대 영국의 브람벨(Brambell) 보고서가 나오고 나서부터이다. 영국 정부는 1965년 브람벨 교수에게 농장동물(farm animal) 복지에 관한 전반적 조사를 의뢰하였다. 그 후 영국 정부는 브람벨 보고서에 기초하여 농장동물 복지자문위원회(1967)를 설립하였고 이것은 1979년 농장동물 복지이사회로 발전하였다.

농장동물 복지이사회의 활동 결과 유럽의 여러 나라의 동물(그중에서도 농장동물) 복지의 표준이 된 동물의 5대 자유(Five Freedoms) 개념이 탄생하였다.

① 배고픔과 갈증으로부터의 자유(Freedom from Hunger and Thirst)
농장동물에게 건강을 유지하기 위하여 신선한 물과 음식에 접근할 수 있어야 한다.
② 불쾌감으로부터의 자유(Freedom from Discomfort)
농장동물에게 편안한 축사 등 적절한 환경을 제공해야 한다.
③ 고통, 부상 및 질병으로부터의 자유(Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease)
농장동물에게 고통과 질병에서 벗어날 수 있도록 적절한 처방 및 치료가 주어져야 한다.
④ 통상의 행위를 표현할 수 있는 자유(Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour)
농장동물에게 적절한 공간과 시설에서 살게 하고 같은 종의 농장동물이 어울려 살 수 있도록 해야 한다.
⑤ 공포와 고통으로부터의 자유(Freedom from Fear and Distress)
농장동물에게는 정신적 고통을 피하도록 적절한 환경과 처우를 해야 한다.

위의 개념은 동물 복지의 필요적 기준을 정한 것은 아니다. 이것은 동물 복지의 이상적 상황(best possible standards)을 설정한 것이다. 인간이 동물을 사용하지 않을 수 없지만 그렇다고 해도 사육과정이나 이동과정 혹은 판매과정에서 동물들에게 불필요한 고통을 주지 않도록 위와 같은 상황을 지향해 나가자는 것이다. 동물보호에서 하나의 이념과 이상을 구체화한 것이라 할 수 있다.

유럽의 동물복지정책, 그 현황

위와 같은 배경 속에서 유럽 각국에서는 1960년대 이후 농장동물을 중심으로 동물복지적 관점의 많은 법령이 만들어진다. 유럽에서 이러한 변화를 일으키는 데에는 두 개의 초국가적 기구인 유럽평의회 및 유럽연합(EU)의 역할이 컸다. 이들 초국가적 기구는 농장동물복지를 위한 최소한의 규범을 만들었고, 회원국가에 대하여 그 도입을 촉구해 왔다.

1990년대에 들어와 EU가 창설되고 나서부터 동물보호 및 복지에 관한 EU의 정책은 보다 분명해졌다. 이것은 EU가 그 기본문서에 관련 조항을 명기하는 것에서 알 수 있다. EU는 1999년 발효된 암스테르담 조약을 통해 동물복지에 관한 역사적인 조항을 넣는데 성공한다. 동 조약에서 부속문건으로 채택된 '동물보호와 복지에 관한 의정서'에서 EU는 쾌고감수 존재(sentient beings)로서의 동물을 인정하고 각 회원국들이 그에 걸 맞는 관심을 기울일 것을 요구하고 있다. 세계의 어떤 법도, 조약에도 동물을 이런 존재로 표현한 적은 일찍이 없었다.

EU의 동물복지에 관한 노력은 2004년 체결된 EU헌법 창설을 위한 조약에서 그 본문에 하나의 조항을 넣음으로써 더욱 관심을 받았다. 이 조약 제121조에서는 동물이 쾌고감수 존재임을 인식하고 공동체와 회원국은 농업, 어업, 운송, 국내시장, 기술적 실험 분야 등에서 동물복지적 차원의 최선의 고려를 해야 한다고 규정하고 있다. 이러한 내용은 2007년 EU의 개혁을 지향하면서 체결된 리스본 조약에서도 확인되었다.

그뿐만인가. 국내적 차원에서도 변화는 일어나고 있다. 독일은 2002년 동물의 권리를 헌법에 보장한 세계 최초의 국가가 되었다. 인간의 존엄성을 존중하고 보호하도록 한 헌법 규정들 속에 동물을 추가한 한 것이다. 이런 현상을 제러미 리프킨은 <유러피언 드림>(이원기 옮김)에서 보편적 인권 개념이 동물에게까지 확장된 것이라고 표현하였다.

살처분된 소와 돼지를 위해 우리 모두 천도재를 올리자



▲ 10일 안성 칠장사에서 열린 '구제역·조류독감 종식 발원 및 희생동물 천도제'에서 스님들이 동물 영정을 향해 머리를 숙이고 있다.
ⓒ 안성신문

관련사진보기

내가 동물에 관한 도덕철학과 유럽의 상황을 소개하는 것에 대하여 오해하지 말라. 우리 모두 채식주의자가 되어 동물을 해방하자는 말이 아니다. 나도 그럴 자신은 없다. 단지 쾌고감수의 존재인 동물에 대하여 최소한의 예의를 지키자는 것이다. 그것은 동물의 목숨을 거두는 것을 남용하지 말고, 불가피하게 거둘 때라도 그 고통을 최소화해야 한다는 것이다.

이제 이 글을 맺으면서 다시 우리의 문제로 돌아오자. 구제역 대란에서 보여준 우리 정부의 동물관은 위에서 본 동물에 관한 도덕철학에 비추어 어떻게 평가될 수 있을까. 그 판단은 독자에게 맡기자. 다만 이곳에서는 위에서 거듭나온 철학적 용어 하나만 강조하자. 대한민국에서 키워진 소나 돼지도 쾌고감수의 존재(sentient beings)라는 사실을.

여기에서 비판하지 않을 수 없는 것은 장식적 법률에 불과한 우리의 동물보호법이다. 이 법은 비록 유럽과 같이 동물에 대한 인도적 처우가 세밀하게 규정되어 있지는 못하지만 적어도 그 취지만큼은 국제적 추세와 유사하다. 그러나 그 법률은 있으나마나한 법률, 장식법률에 불과하다.

구제역과 관련한 한 동물보호법 한 조문만 보자. 동물보호법 제11조는 도살 규정인데 "…동물을 죽이는 경우에는… 고통을 최소화하여야 한다"라고 되어 있다. 그런데 이 규정을 위반했다고 해도 아무런 벌칙도 없으니 솔직히 있으나마나한 규정이다. 그런 이유로 정부는 중인환시리에 소와 돼지를 생매장했다. 현행법에 명백한 위법행위를 정부가 버젓이 대낮에 했단 말이다. 나는 이런 정부를 규탄하지 않을 수 없다. '대한민국 정부여, 당신들은 해서는 안 될 일을 그토록 잔인하게 했구려.'

이제 끝을 맺자. 나는 구제역으로 살처분된 350여만 마리의 소와 돼지를 생각할 때마다 콜로세움에서 각종 투기회를 즐긴 잔인했던 로마인들이 생각난다. 우리는 전 국토를 콜로세움으로 만들어 투기회를 즐긴 잔인한 민족이 되었다. 내 비록 채식주의자도 아니요, 특별한 동물애호가도 아니지만 이런 식으로 동물을 대해선 안 된다는 것을 강조한다. 그것은 자연의 이치에도 맞지 않는 것이고, 우리의 최소한의 도덕철학에도 결코 용인될 수 없는 부도덕한 행위이다. 전 국민이 나서 마음속으로 천도재를 지내고 다시는 이런 일이 재발하지 않도록 다짐하는 기회가 되어야겠다.


덧붙이는 글 | 이 글을 쓴 박찬운은 한양대 법학전문대학원 인권법 교수이자 변호사이다.

2018년도 안내자과정 운영안 | 한살림연수원



2018년도 안내자과정 운영안 | 한살림연수원

2018년도 안내자과정 운영안

hansalimedu 2018-03-21 안내자과정




■마음살림 안내자



– 마음살림: 한살림 생활수양활동(한살림수행)의 이름

– 마음살림 안내자: 일상에서 마음살림을 실천하고, 조직에서의 마음살림 활동을 촉진하며, 마음살림 프로그램을 돕는 사람

– 마음살림 안내자의 역할

•일상적인 마음살림 생활 및 활동의 본보기

•자기가 속한 조직에서의 마음살림 활동의 촉진자

•마음살림 프로그램의 (보조) 진행자





■마음살림 안내자 양성과정

– 선발: 선발기준 등 모집요강에 따라 공개모집(2018년은 쉼)

– 교육과정(2년): 1, 2년차(기초 및 심화) 각 36시간 교육/ 프로그램 및 워크숍 참여

– 연구과정(1년): 수료자와 통합공부모임 참여/ 진행안 만들기/ 프로그램 진행보조 참여 등

– 과정 수료 후: 다양한 마음살림 활동 및 모임 운영/ 지속적인 공부모임 참여와 역량 강화/ 필요 시 마음살림 프로그램 보조진행 참여 등



■연차별 양성과정

○1년차 기초과정

1) 목표: 마음살림의 기초를 이해하고 주요 프로그램을 경험한다.

2) 과정: 필수교육 36시간+자율학습+프로그램 참가 2회 이상+공통일정 참여

3) 주요내용
필수교육: 한살림운동과 마음살림, 마음의 과학, 마음살림 프로그램 이해와 연습 등(4~6월, 9~11월. 총 6개월 동안 매월 1일 6시간 6회)
자율학습: 필독서 학습 후 피드백(4~12월)
마음살림 프로그램(마음살림 몸마음돌봄과정_기본 및 깨어나기과정 각1회 이상/모심과정 1회 포함) 연2회 필수 참가(참가비 지원)
공통일정: 안내자 전체 워크숍(3월, 8월), 평가 워크숍(12월)

○2년차 심화과정

1) 목표: 마음살림 이해를 심화하고 주요 공부법을 습득한다.

2) 과정: 필수교육 36시간+자율학습+프로그램 참가 2회 이상+공통일정 참여

3) 주요내용
필수교육: 한살림운동과 마음살림2, 마음의 과학, 심화 프로그램 참여 및 진행역량 기초 등(4~6월, 9~11월. 총 6개월 동안 매월 1일 6시간 6회)
자율학습: 필독서 학습 후 피드백(4~12월)
마음살림 프로그램(마음살림 몸마음돌봄과정_심화 및 깨어나기과정 각1회 이상) 연2회 필수 참가(참가비 지원)
공통일정: 안내자 전체 워크숍(3월, 8월), 평가 워크숍(12월)

○3년차 연구과정

1) 목표: 마음살림 공부법을 체득하고 안내자 역량을 높인다.

2) 과정: 연구과제 수행+자율학습+공부모임 참여+공통일정 참여

3) 연구과제: 마음살림 프로그램/ 모임 진행안 만들기와 연습

4) 주요내용
연구과제 수행: 공부모임 및 프로그램 참여, 자율학습, 개인학습을 통해 수행
자율학습: 연구과제 협력 수행, 개인학습에 대한 상호점검 및 독려 등
공부모임: 수료자 통합모임과 깊은공부모임 참여를 통해 지속적인 동기부여 및 역량 강화
12월 평가워크숍에서 연구과정 결과보고 및 시연/ 다음 해 3월 전체과정 수료식
마음살림 프로그램 참가 시 참가비 지원(연2회)
지역별 마음살림 모임 지원 등 다양한 마음살림 활동 권장
마음살림 프로그램 보조진행 참여
공통일정: 안내자 전체 워크숍(3월, 8월), 평가 워크숍(12월)

○4년차(수료) 이후

1) 3년차 연구과제(진행안 만들기와 연습)는 수료 이후에도 지속

2) 수료자 통합모임과 깊은공부모임 참여를 통해 지속적인 동기부여 및 역량 강화

3) 지역별 마음살림 활동 모색(마음살림 모임 구성, 촉진, 지원 등)

4) 마음살림 프로그램 보조진행 참여

5) 마음살림 프로그램 참가 시 참가비 지원

6) 안내자 전체 워크숍(3, 8월) 참여



※마음살림 안내자 양성과정 필독서

바이런 케이티, [네 가지 질문], 침묵의 향기, 2013
브루스 립튼·스티브 베어맨, [자발적 진화], 정신세계사, 2012
아디야샨티, [깨어남에서 깨달음까지], 정신세계사, 2011
에크하르트 톨레, [지금 이 순간을 살아라], 양문, 2008
.켄 윌버, [무경계], 정신세계사, 2012
장일순, [나락 한 알 속의 우주], 녹색평론사, 2009
스기에 유지/유상용, [사람의 본성에 맞는 사회], 히어나우시스템, 2012
조 디스펜자, [당신이 플라시보다], 샨티, 2016
유인학, [숨 명상 깨달음]
이정훈, [살림행공 안내서], 한살림연수원, 2016

2018/03/29

Brené Brown: Why Human Connection Will Bring Us Closer Together



Brené Brown: Why Human Connection Will Bring Us Closer Together
SEP 12, 2017 @ 08:00 AM 11,429 The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Brené Brown: Why Human Connection Will Bring Us Closer Together

Dan Schawbel , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Benedict Evans


Brené Brown

I spoke to Brené Brown, author of the new book Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, about why we have a crisis of disconnection in society, the importance of a sense of belonging, the difference between true belonging and fitting in, why human interactions trump social media ones and how leaders can create more intimacy with their employees.

Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation – Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past sixteen years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong. Her TED talk — “The Power of Vulnerability” — is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world, with more than thirty million views.
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Dan Schawbel: Why do we currently have a crisis of disconnection in our society?

Brené Brown: We’ve sorted ourselves into factions based on our politics and ideology. We’ve turned away from one another and toward blame and rage. We’re lonely and untethered. And scared. Any answer to the question “How did we get here?” is certain to be complex. But If I had to identify one core variable that magnifies our compulsion to sort ourselves into factions while at the same time cutting ourselves off from real connection with other people, my answer would be fear. Fear of vulnerability. Fear of getting hurt. Fear of the pain of disconnection. Fear of criticism and failure. Fear of conflict. Fear of not measuring up. When we ignore fear and deny vulnerability, fear grows and metastasizes. We move away from a belief in common humanity and unifying change and move into blame and shame. We will do anything that gives us a sense of more certainty and we will give our power to anyone who can promise easy answers and give us an enemy to blame.


Schawbel: Why do you believe a sense of true belonging is the solution?

Brown: We’re in a spiritual crisis, the key to building a true belonging practice is maintaining our belief in inextricable human connection. That connection — the spirit that flows between us and every other human in the world – is not something that can be broken; however, our belief in the connection is constantly tested and repeatedly severed. When our belief that there’s something greater than us, something rooted in love and compassion, breaks, we are more likely to retreat to our bunkers, to hate from afar, to tolerate bullshit and to dehumanize others.

Addressing this crisis will require a tremendous amount of courage. For the moment most of us are either making the choice to protect ourselves from conflict, discomfort, and vulnerability by staying quiet, or picking sides and in the process adopting the behavior of the people with whom we passionately disagree. Either way, the choices we are making to protect our beliefs are leaving us disconnected, afraid and lonely. The data that emerged from the research on true belonging can start to connect some of the dots around why we’re sorted but lonely and perhaps contribute new insight into how we can reclaim authenticity and connection.

Schawbel: How do you define “true belonging” and how is this different from “fitting in?”

Brown: The quest for true belonging begins with this definition that I crafted from the data:


True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging does not require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.

True belonging is not passive. It’s not the belonging that comes with just joining a group. It’s not fitting in or pretending or selling out because it’s safer. It’s a practice that requires us to be vulnerable, get uncomfortable, and learn how to be present with people without sacrificing who we are. If we are going to change what is happening in a meaningful way we’re going to need to intentionally be with people who are different from us. We’re going to have to sign up and join, and take a seat at the table. We’re going to have to learn how to listen, have hard conversations, look for joy, share pain, and be more curious than defensive, all while seeking moments of togetherness.

Its counterintuitive, but our belief in the inextricable human connection is one of our most renewable sources of courage in the wilderness. I can stand up for what I believe is right when I know that regardless of the pushback and criticism, I’m connected to myself and others in a way that can’t be severed. When we don’t believe in an unbreakable connection, the isolation of the wilderness is too daunting so we stay in our factions and echo chambers.

Schawbel: Do you believe that technology has made us feel more isolated, lonely and without a sense of belonging? Why or why not?

Brown: As I started digging into this question with research participants there was very little ambiguity. It became clear that face-to-face connection is imperative in our true belonging practice. Not only did face-to-face contact emerge as essential from the participant data in my research, but studies across the world confirm those findings. Social media are helpful in cultivating connection only to the extent that they’re used to create real community where there is structure, purpose and meaning, and some face-to-face contact. Social media are great for developing community, but for true belonging, real connection and real empathy require meeting real people in a real space in real time.

Schawbel: How can leaders create more intimacy and connection within their teams?

Brown: If leaders really want people to show up, speak out, take chances, and innovate, we have to create cultures where people feel safe —where their belonging is not threatened by speaking out and they are supported when they make the decision to brave the wilderness, stand alone, and speak truth to bullshit while maintaining civility.

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Dan Schawbel is a keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. Subscribe to his free newsletter.

15 Brené Brown: ‘People will find a million reasons to tear your work down’ | Books | The Guardian

Brené Brown: ‘People will find a million reasons to tear your work down’ | Books | The Guardian

Interview
Brené Brown: ‘People will find a million reasons to tear your work down’


By Carole Cadwalladr
Her talks and books about courage have inspired millions – and turned the respected researcher into a ‘celebrity self-help queen’, a label she resents. Carole Cadwalladr meets Brené Brown

@carolecadwalla

Sun 22 Nov 2015 20.

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‘All you can really control is how you feel about what you’ve contributed’: Brené Brown. Photograph: LeAnn Mueller/Contour by Getty Images


Five years ago, Brené Brown was an obscure academic – an associate professor of social work at the University of Houston – and then, overnight, she was famous. She was “the vulnerability woman” or “the shame academic”, and it’s a measure of how much her life has changed that during a whistlestop few days in Britain she has had a private leadership session with banking executives in the City, an evening in front of a capacity crowd at Alain de Botton’s School of Life, an all-day workshop training counsellors in her methodology, and a whole string of interviews to mark the launch of her latest book, Rising Strong.

On the one hand she’s now reaching the kind of audience that most academics can only dream of. On the other she seems, well, a bit exhausted. A photo shoot was scheduled for after my interview, but when I catch up with her in her London hotel she explains that she has pulled out because it was just “too much”. Part of the problem, she says, is that “it’s not me. I’m a researcher. It also… to be totally frank with you, I actually don’t like the cult of personality celebrity stuff around my work at all. It should be about the work, right? I’m not that interesting. The work is really interesting – the work is the research.”

In fact this cuts to the heart of the conundrum that is now Brown’s life. She’s still an academic. But she’s now also an Oprah-approved author who gigs on the global megaspeaker circuit. Making sense of these two things seems to be an ongoing struggle. She hates the words “self-help”, she says. “I don’t know what it means. I don’t think we’re meant to do it alone. And I think I have a really legitimate reflex to those words as a researcher. I do walk through [bookshop] aisles sometimes and say: ‘Jesus, where’s the evidence to support this?’”

And yet the text underneath Rising Strong’s title, plastered across the cover, is pretty unequivocal: “If we are brave enough, often enough, we will fall,” it says. “This is a book about getting back up.” She may not want to see herself as a self-help author, but her publishers certainly do. And at least it means people are now reading her work – her last two books were both bestsellers.

And all because, back in 2010, she agreed to give a talk to a few hundred people at a small TEDx event in Texas. It was on her specialist subject: vulnerability and its partner in crime, shame. 


She’s a qualitative researcher, so her work involves interviewing people and listening to their stories, and after hundreds of interviews she thought she’d found some common threads: that connection is the key to everything, but shame – or a fear of disconnection – keeps us from it. She discovered, however, that there was a class of people who simply felt good enough, who weren’t plagued by fear or doubt. And the key, she theorised, is that they were able to be vulnerable. The problem, she realised, was that it didn’t include her. She had been on “a mission to control and predict”, but this had led her to research “which suggested that the way to live is with vulnerability and to stop controlling and predicting”. The result, she told the audience, was a breakdown.

Later she told a friend how embarrassed she was that she’d opened up like that and how terrified she was that the talk would be put online where “up to 500 people” might see it. Or, imagine, a thousand. “My life would be over,” she said. But a few more than that did – the video went viral and now more than 23 million people have watched it. The “warm wash of shame” as she calls it, of not feeling good enough, or smart enough, or thin enough, was something that people everywhere could relate to. And if talking about feelings sounds a bit warm and fuzzy, there’s an edge to what Brown says, a wit. She’s warm, but she’s also forthright and funny. A fifth-generation Texan whose family motto is “lock and load”.

Why do you think it spoke to people so much, I ask her towards the end of our interview. “Interestingly or ironically, the willingness or the courage to articulate what I’m feeling exactly right now,” she says. 


“Which is: do the best work you can and find the courage to put your work out there and know that, no matter what you do, some people are going to like it and some people aren’t. All you can really control is how you feel about what you’ve contributed. The thing was to say out loud how hard that really is: 

‘I want to be brave with my work and I want to be brave with my life.’ People will find a million reasons to tear it down, so you have to be really sure about what you’re doing, because in the end, if you believe in it that’s enough.”

It’s quite a speech – both heartfelt and a bit defiant – and it’s a reaction to a series of questions I’ve asked her. Doesn’t it put too much onus on the individual, I ask. Given that many people have problems – such as being poor – which they can’t necessarily fix by being vulnerable or courageous? And has there been independent research into whether her theories actually work? Because as well as the three books she’s written, she’s also spun two companies out from her research: CourageWorks, an e-learning course, and the Daring Way, a certification course for counsellors. And while it’s understandable that you are uncomfortable with “the cult of personality”, people are buying into your personality, aren’t they? They believe you can help them.

“I have a strong belief in a lot of things,” she says, “like union work, and I don’t know anything about the people who founded them. I’m just more interested in the theory. To me, in many ways I’m the face of it because it’s my work, but I think people have a hard time straddling the tension of the fact that you can be both accessible and a researcher. Especially in this country.”

I don’t know, I say. Daniel Kahneman is an academic, but also a massive seller, I can straddle that tension, but you’ve commercialised your research – you’re offering a course that costs $4,000, so there’s a higher bar. It’s a business, not just a theory, right? It begs different questions.

Her response is interesting: “You’re referring to the Daring Way, but $4,000 plus or minus $100 is what it costs us to put someone through training. The Daring Way was about an ethical decision. How can we make sure we can refer people who understand the research and work from an empirically based practice model? In order to do that we had to get very serious about the vetting, which is unusual for training certification. It’s definitely a labour of love, not commercial.

“And CourageWorks, my other company,” she adds, “is really all about scaling. I was on Necker Island with Richard Branson and a lot of social activists, and at the end he invited a bunch of local high-school seniors. And afterwards Richard asked some of the kids: ‘What could make your life better here?’ Two of them said: ‘Had I grown up in family where my parents had an understanding of what shame was, and how it should or shouldn’t be used as a parenting tool, my life would be different.’ 


I thought: we should be able to do that. We have technology. We should be able to get this everywhere, make learning accessible. And if people find that to be commercialisation, which makes me less of a scholar or less of a contributor, that’s about their stuff.”

Maybe it is about their stuff, or in this case, my stuff. On the one hand she’s dealing with the universals of human experience and has genuinely interesting things to say. On the other there’s the schmaltzy subtitle and the folksy tone of Rising Strong – there’s a lot about “Wholeheartedness”, a term she’s coined, and believing people are Doing The Best That They Can. It’s not my thing, but so what? There’s no doubt she’s reaching a large audience that finds value in what she’s saying.

Brown believes that we are in an “epidemic of shame”, shame that expresses itself in alcoholism and obesity and addiction and debt and medication, but she claims that its expression is gendered. That for men and women the triggers are different. For women it’s about expectations and, often, body image. For men it’s about being perceived as weak.

And yet… and I struggle to put this diplomatically, the presentation of her work seems pretty gendered. Brown’s Instagram page majors heavily on the kind of inspirational quotes in cutesy typography set against pretty pictures that bring me out in a rash. “Show up. Be seen. Be loved,” says a typical one. “#LoveWins”

“I don’t think there is a gender difference in my work,” she says. “Daring Greatly[the last book] had a readership which was about 50/50 men and women. And 75% of the people who invite me to talk to organisations are men. I will tell you, though, in Britain they want to put me on the cover of the book. And there was an article in one of the magazines here, and it was like: ‘America’s got a new self-help queen.’ To which my response is really: ‘Fuck you’, to be honest with you. It’s probably meant to be really nice, but I’m not sure.”

I guess that there’s an impression that there’s a sorority of women who are in this space, I suggest, talking about empowerment, all of whom are on Oprah, and it seems very female-centred, so there’s you and Elizabeth Gilbert and Amanda Palmer

“I think it’s something I wrestle with a lot, because if you go to my talks the majority of the audience is women. Let me go on the record and say if you want to put me in an a room with Elizabeth Gilbert and Oprah and Amanda Palmer, I’ll take that date any day of the week. Amy Cuddy, Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Cain… bring them on – it’s great. I think the response to my work is gendered. I can guarantee this interview wouldn’t be anywhere close to what it’s been if I was a man sitting here. If I was a male researcher sitting here, I would not have to justify the commercialisation of my work. I would not have to justify trying to straddle the economy and popular culture. I would never be asked. Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Dan Ariely, they would not be asked.”

You’re accusing me of being sexist, I point out.

“No, I’m just saying that the response to my work is gendered.”


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FacebookTwitterPinterest Daring to speak up: Brené Brown giving her TEDx talk on vulnerability in 2010. The video has been watched 23m times.
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She says it’s funny because right now she’s in a collaboration with a Polaroid photographer, Andrea Corronna Jenkins, “and we’re doing these things called ‘Weekly doses of daring’. I spent a week and a half curating all of her photos for race, for class, for gender, for age. And because I put a pretty image up with words on it… I have to say, it’s super frustrating.”
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What is? “The assumption that the powerful combination of beautiful images and words is just for women. What am I going to have? A bald eagle soaring with a dead rat in its talons with a quote saying: ‘Go work your balls off today, brother’?”

The publicist walks into the room right at that moment and Brown says: “Can we have a bit more time? We’re having a heated debate.”

And then, like women, perhaps, we both hastily backtrack and start heatedly agreeing with each other. The fact is that I like Brown and admire what she’s doing. Her whole schtick is about having the courage to be out there, doing stuff, and she is. I just don’t get on very well with words like “Wholeheartedness”, I say, especially when they’re capitalised.

“Me too,” she says and shrugs.

“It’s your phrase.”

“I don’t use it very much. I’d never say: ‘Wholehearted leadership’, for example.”

We’ve gone way over time. And by the end of it she looks even more exhausted. But she has a bigger issue. “That article that was written about me,” she says at the end. “The one where it said: ‘America Has a New Queen of Self-Help’? I’ve got to tell you, I cried for four hours, because I don’t think they’d ever do that to man who had been a researcher, a scholar, for 13 years. And it’s not unusual for me to be the only female speaker in a day-long list at a corporate event. With a predominantly male audience and to be paid half of what the men are. So I double my fee and then everybody leaps on me. Saying, who do you think you are? You know who I am? I’m the person trying not to vomit into my mouth when I hear what my male counterparts are making. That’s who I am. I’m just trying to stave off the throwing up. It’s difficult, difficult.”

It is. And maybe that could be a new quote for her Instagram page, set against a picture of an eagle with a dead rat in its talons. Brené Brown –Just Trying To Stave Off The Throwing Up.

Rising Strong is published by Vermilion at £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39, go to bookshop.theguardian.com