Joaquin Phoenix received the Oscar for best actor for his performance in the film Joker. In his acceptance speech he declared that we must abandon our egocentric vision of the world, choosing love as our guiding principle instead.
I feel so honoured right now. I don't feel elevated above my fellow nominees or anyone in this room, because we share the same love: the love of film. And this form of expression has given me an extraordinary life. I don't know where I'd be without it.
But I think the greatest gift that I've been given, as have many of you in this room, is the opportunity to give a voice to the voiceless. I've thought a lot about some of the most pressing issues we face collectively.
I think at times we feel like we champion different causes. But I think at the core they're all the same. I think whether we're talking about gender inequality, racism, LGBTQ rights, indigenous people's rights or animal rights, we're talking about the fight against injustice.
We're talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, use, and control another with impunity.
I think we've become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we're the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. And then we take her milk that was intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.
I think we fear the idea of personal change because we think we have to sacrifice something, or give something up. But human beings at their best are so creative and inventive. And I think when we use love and compassion as our guiding principles, we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and to the environment.
I've been a scoundrel in my life. I've been selfish, I've been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I'm grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. I think that's when we're at our best: when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow, when we educate each other, when we guide each other towards redemption. That is the best of humanity.
When he was 17, my brother wrote these words: "Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow."