In Monbiot's generally good article is a couple statements about my
friend Goldsmith:
> The modern European green movement began as a response by landowners to
>the rise of the middle class and the industries which empowered it.
>Industrialism threatened both the landscapes which reflected an unchanging
>social order and the aristocracy's economic control.
>
> Today, it would be foolish to claim that this tendency has entirely
>disappeared. Much of the movement's funding in this country is provided
>by people with inherited wealth, the most prominent of whom, Teddy
>Goldsmith, happily describes himself as a reactionary.
< This is misleading.
< 1. Such modest wealth as Z.E has accumulated was trickled out
from the ill-gotten gains of his late money-maniac brother Jimmy
'Goldenborls'. They did not inherit wealth.
< 2. Z.E's sense of humour abounds in self-deprecating jokes.
He is a conservative, but would not admit to being a reactionary (i.e
unreasoning opponent of all change) - and he is not. Peruse his
magazine The Ecologist, esp during his active editorship in the 1970s &
1980s; you will see he is in most ways a genuine radical.
- R
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