Alan Watts, in looking at social issues was quite concerned with the necessity for
international peace, for tolerance and understanding among disparate cultures.
He also came to feel acutely conscious of a growing ecological predicament; as
one instance, in the early 1960s he wrote: "Can any melting or burning
imaginable get rid of these ever-rising mountains of ruin -- especially when
the things we make and build are beginning to look more and more like rubbish
even before they are thrown away?"
Watts felt that absolute morality had nothing to do with the fundamental
realization of one's deep spiritual identity. He advocated social rather than
personal ethics. In his writings, Watts was increasingly concerned with ethics
applied to relations between humanity and the natural environment and between
governments and citizens. He wrote out of an appreciation of a racially and
culturally diverse social landscape.
Since the inception of alanwattspodcasts.com by his son Mark Watts, and the
success of internet based user-generated videos, many of Alan's audio contents
have been made into videos.
As part of his growing popularity, Matt Stone and Trey Parker—creators of the
animated series South Park—have also contributed a video tribute by animating
some of his lectures. This has spawned a culture of many hundreds of user
animated videos all around the net.
In October 1973, Watts returned from an exhausting European lecture tour. He
died of heart failure in his sleep at his home on Mt. Tamalpais the following
month, at the age of 58
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I LOVE Alan Watts. Thanks for posting this. <3