There We Are Human Again

About this book

An extraordinary and powerful story of disillusionment, despair and recovery, There We Are Human Again vividly describes the journey of former British diplomat Carne Ross, a journey from commitment and service to the state and 'the system', the shattering of that belief, and the discovery of better way of organising our affairs, a philosophy often dismissed as violent and utopian but that is in fact the only true form of democracy - and it's possible now. The world is sliding towards one kind of anarchy: incessant conflict, environmental collapse, and a disturbing sense of insoluble crisis and hopelessness. But there is another kind of "anarchy" entirely - not chaos, but organizing ourselves, cooperating without domination or coercion, and therefore living - and loving - together in peace. In this book, Carne Ross tells the story of how he went from negotiating conflict and terrorism for the British government and resigning in disgust over the Iraq war, to working with liberation and democracy movements around the world, and in the process discovering anarchism as an inspiring yet surprisingly plausible politics. His journey spans disillusionment, despair and psychological collapse, and finally the discovery of a new way of looking at life - and love - and with it a personal reconstruction and revival of hope. There We Are Human Again explains that we cannot be truly ourselves when controlled by the state, our lives dominated by the incessant demands of work and 'the boss'. We are told that the current 'system' is inevitable and indeed reflects the reality of human nature. But this is not so. If we instead put the highest of human needs and desires - our relationships, love itself - at the centre, we discover an entirely different way of organising ourselves, our politics, our economics - in fact, of how to live. And only there can we find what it is to be truly human, at last.