Читать книгу Critical Humanism - Ken Plummer - Страница 8

My special thanks to Jonathan Skerrett, who has been my advising editor for the past three books. I have had some really good editors over quite some time, starting with Peter Hopkins at Routledge one very drunken lunch back in 1972; Jonathan has been wonderfully supportive, critically shrewd and very patient. I also thank Karina Jákupsdóttir for always being there to help bring this book into fruition. Sarah Dancy revised a very messy text into a much clearer one and I am very grateful. Thanks too to Evie Deavall (production) and Michael Solomons (index).

Nowadays, most of my intellectual debts go back a long way and most of my teachers, sadly, are dead. My earliest tutors (and colleagues), Stanley Cohen, Mary McIntosh and Jock Young, among others, taught me not only a passion for doing academic things that personally matter, but also showed me that intellectual life can be fun and enjoyable. John Gagnon and Bill Simon were dear friends as well as extraordinary thinkers. Michael Schofield was there with my very earliest worries. I remember them all with deep fondness.

A few people have been regular supports and I thank them dearly: Molly Andrews, Neli Demireva, Carlos Gigoux, Miriam Glucksmann, Mark Harvey, Phil Jakes, George Kolanckiewicz, Travis Kong, Harvey Molotch, Ewa Morawaska, Lydia Morris, Peter Nardi, David Paternotte, Colin Samson, Steve Smith, Arlene Stein, Jeremy Tambling, Pauline Tambling, Paul Thompson, Jeffrey Weeks and Glenn Wharton. I especially thank Rob Stones for years of engaged discussion and for a critical but sympathetic early reading of this work. And I thank Daniel Nehring for all his detailed, critical and generous comments on a final draft of the book. This has not been an easy book to write, but I hope it can make a small and timely contribution to a never-ending debate.

Sadly, although my Gay Liberation Front days were a critical turning point in my life, I have never been quite the activist I would have liked to have been. But I have always admired those who are. Any proceeds from this book will be donated to Amnesty International.

Finally, I dedicate this book to my dear brother Geoff, who died as I was completing it, after many years of cheerful illness. I am very thankful for my family of ‘Plummers’: Ethel, Len, Steph, Jon and Tony, Chris and Lorraine, Abigail and Emily. Most of all, I fear I could do very little without the perpetual kindness, support and love of my life-long partner and ‘bestest friend’, Everard Longland. We have had a long and wonderful journey together.

Wivenhoe, November 2020

Imaginations: Only Connect

Only Connect. Tell the Stories.

Connect the machine to the action

And the action to the person.

Connect the person to the other,

And the other to the self.

Connect the self to the body,

And the body to the mind.

Connect the mind to the senses,

And the senses to the community.

Connect the community to the country,

And the country to the world.

Connect the world to the earth,

And the earth to the sky.

Connect the sky to the cosmos,

And the cosmos back to humanity.

Connect the particular to the general,

And the unique to the universal.

Connect the public to the personal,

And the personal to the political.

Connect the present to the past,

And the past to the future.

Connect the media to the reality,

And the reality to the truth.

Connect the knowing to the doing,

And the doing to the values.

Connect the generations to our dreams:

Of love and kindness and care.

Connect creativity to dignity and hope,

To a politics of better worlds for all.

Connect to rights and justice and flourishing.

Hear the Stories. Only Connect.