Presenting a unique fusion of ideas, the 40-page illustrated pamphlet has been described as “very readable and profoundly thoughtful” by Peter Marshall, well-known author of Riding the Wind and Demanding the Impossible - A History of Anarchism.
The talk is being hosted by Worthing Alliance at The Jolly Brewers pub in Clifton Road, Worthing, on Thursday July 29, from 8pm and will be followed by a question and answer session.
Says Paul: “I know so many people who feel fundamentally lost in life. We distract ourselves constantly to avoid facing up to unpleasant facts – that each of us will inevitably die, for instance, and that in the meantime we never seem to live as deeply and fully as we would like.
“Many of us are also aware that human civilization has gone so badly wrong that it is destroying the planet, but this is such a painful truth to recognise that we turn our heads away and pretend somebody else will sort it all out for us, or fool ourselves that we are ‘doing our bit’ by recycling bottles.
“The booklet is an attempt to wrestle with all this, face up to it and propose a way of thinking and living that takes it all into account.
“It is very much one argument, consisting of a number of disparate threads that come together. It’s difficult to summarise as it dips into various fields of thought that are normally considered separately.
“Some of it, for instance, is looking at the biological side of the Gaia theory, whereas other sections focus on religious concepts of wholeness, the idea of individuality, and the connections between ethics, responsibility and political resistance.
“I have quoted extensively from a wide range of authors to show how these threads already exist in our culture – it’s just a question of bringing them together to make sense of the whole.
“I also hope that people will want to read some of these writers’ works for themselves and make their own contributions to this vital process of re-evaluation.”
Copies of the booklet will be available on the night and are also currently on sale at The Cowley Club at 12 London Road, Brighton. For details of mail order and more info go to paulcudenec.blogspot.com