My new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice, is available now. To make it as accessible as possible I am sharing chapters from it as podcasts. This offering is chapter 5, entitled “Love” and is one of 3 chapters which outline the main ethics needed to build a theory of love. These 3 interlinked ethics are: love, nonviolence and eco justice. Earlier chapters of the book have provided an account of my personal and professional life as it has involved experiencing or witnessing broken-heartedness. The root causes of broken-heartedness are lovelessness, violence and eco-injustice. The absence or denial of love for minority status people, other animals and Nature is a way of thinking about how things have come to like they are in the world.
Love is understood in different ways by us all and probably is one of the most valued ideas and experience for many of us. This chapter defines love as a political practice aimed at addressing complex wicked problems with an ethical positioning of love. From this ethical stance we can see the interconnectedness of factors and appreciate how harmful violence is, and to know what to do about it. Love as a practice involves many skills and actions, that are familiar to anyone involved in the nonviolent social and environmental movements of our times. As well as to anyone who consciously relates to others with love and not violence. It helps us connect with empathy and deep understanding to be with and stand alongside people, other animals and Nature who have broken-hearts in justice struggles.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book it can be found at:
https://revoltbooks.com/
Do feel free to give me feedback about the podcast or the book on this site or by leaving a review on Goodreads.
I really appreciate your support.
About an ethic of love to counter an ethic of domination