The Lucifer Principle was a let down...
I should've read, digested and discarded this book 10 years ago...
It's only idea: Cultures act as superorganisms in a hierarchal pecking order.
I was hoping for a bit more... Here, let's break it down, Bobby Brown:
1) Cultures are supergroups of organisms whose effect is greater than the sum of its parts. (Um... duh. The best part of this section was all the examples of animal and insect colony behavior.)
2) These superorganisms are influenced by ideas (called "memes" just for the totally rad sound of it) which spread and grow and mutate like biological organisms, which make these ideas (called "memes" because "ideas" sounds like something H.G.Wells would've called it) appear to have a life of their own (which they do, in a poetic sense, but come the fuck on! Ideas are in our fucking heads and they never got out and fucked around on their own! Even these books and interwebs are still *only* reaaally *alive* in our fucking heads! To a hornet, a cactus, or a siberian tiger, they are bits of notfood! Ideas are purely neurological happenings. They only evolve inside our brains. They do nothing whatsoever in a dictionary except wait to be ingested. So stop writing about "meeeemes" as if they are separate entities with a will and a way. They only have way, like everything else, not will, as far as we know.)
3) Nations, empires, all social groupings are structured in an almost inevitable, natural pecking order. America is slipping down this pyramid and acting just like all the other slipping superstructures in history. P.S.: if we, America The Beautiful, do not stop the lunatic fringe of Fundamentalist Islam, they will inspire the mass of Mohamed's followers to crush us like a grape. (This slide is inevitable, and necessary, if the pluralism he calls for is going to work. The book was from the early 90's I think. He was/is probably right about the scary barbarians at the gate. And, maybe my friend James has a great point that given all its warts and whatnot, the American experiment is still an amazing worthwhile idea...
But I'm still not willing to cry for the top dog getting knocked off the throne. The Emperor will always go naked. This is America, damn it. Not Rome. Give us your tired, your poor, and all that. Bloom wrote about the benefits of democracy and pluralism at the end of his book and it made sense that this would be the social structure of choice if we are to find a way to eradicate the idea of solving all conflicts through clever use of explosions. But, is that simply because I/we are in the midst of it? Is it just how a member of a nominally democratic, pluralistic society would be expected to react to being told his society is better than other forms of cultural organization? Using our value systems, what else could we conclude?
I'm just being cautious. I'm just sayin'... I don't want to live in Iran under the Ayatollah's rules, or in Somalia by the skin of my teeth, or in Kansas even. I love it here in Nueva York. Seattle was amazing too. Pluralism promotes a feeling of inclusion for the majority of people. Democracy, when allowed to function properly, is a beautiful thing. All I'm sayin' is: Lofty ideals are very often twisted toward the purposes of evil men. Even though I can proudly claim my place in the flow of the Western Civilization's genetic and intellectual drift, I think I will always feel like a curious bystander, the wallflower, last kid picked for dodgeball. Not so much a rebel, more like a reject. Watching the US express its foreign policy, and observing the public reaction to it, feels like watching sports, and observing sportsfans. I don't get it, but I do, and I'm bored with it. I'm a nerd. Politics and industry are for the jocks. Just leave me alone and let me read this book. It kinda sucks, but there's some good bits once in awhile.
It got me thinking and debatin' stuff. I suppose that's goodness.
--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. - Abraham Maslow
It's only idea: Cultures act as superorganisms in a hierarchal pecking order.
I was hoping for a bit more... Here, let's break it down, Bobby Brown:
1) Cultures are supergroups of organisms whose effect is greater than the sum of its parts. (Um... duh. The best part of this section was all the examples of animal and insect colony behavior.)
2) These superorganisms are influenced by ideas (called "memes" just for the totally rad sound of it) which spread and grow and mutate like biological organisms, which make these ideas (called "memes" because "ideas" sounds like something H.G.Wells would've called it) appear to have a life of their own (which they do, in a poetic sense, but come the fuck on! Ideas are in our fucking heads and they never got out and fucked around on their own! Even these books and interwebs are still *only* reaaally *alive* in our fucking heads! To a hornet, a cactus, or a siberian tiger, they are bits of notfood! Ideas are purely neurological happenings. They only evolve inside our brains. They do nothing whatsoever in a dictionary except wait to be ingested. So stop writing about "meeeemes" as if they are separate entities with a will and a way. They only have way, like everything else, not will, as far as we know.)
3) Nations, empires, all social groupings are structured in an almost inevitable, natural pecking order. America is slipping down this pyramid and acting just like all the other slipping superstructures in history. P.S.: if we, America The Beautiful, do not stop the lunatic fringe of Fundamentalist Islam, they will inspire the mass of Mohamed's followers to crush us like a grape. (This slide is inevitable, and necessary, if the pluralism he calls for is going to work. The book was from the early 90's I think. He was/is probably right about the scary barbarians at the gate. And, maybe my friend James has a great point that given all its warts and whatnot, the American experiment is still an amazing worthwhile idea...
But I'm still not willing to cry for the top dog getting knocked off the throne. The Emperor will always go naked. This is America, damn it. Not Rome. Give us your tired, your poor, and all that. Bloom wrote about the benefits of democracy and pluralism at the end of his book and it made sense that this would be the social structure of choice if we are to find a way to eradicate the idea of solving all conflicts through clever use of explosions. But, is that simply because I/we are in the midst of it? Is it just how a member of a nominally democratic, pluralistic society would be expected to react to being told his society is better than other forms of cultural organization? Using our value systems, what else could we conclude?
I'm just being cautious. I'm just sayin'... I don't want to live in Iran under the Ayatollah's rules, or in Somalia by the skin of my teeth, or in Kansas even. I love it here in Nueva York. Seattle was amazing too. Pluralism promotes a feeling of inclusion for the majority of people. Democracy, when allowed to function properly, is a beautiful thing. All I'm sayin' is: Lofty ideals are very often twisted toward the purposes of evil men. Even though I can proudly claim my place in the flow of the Western Civilization's genetic and intellectual drift, I think I will always feel like a curious bystander, the wallflower, last kid picked for dodgeball. Not so much a rebel, more like a reject. Watching the US express its foreign policy, and observing the public reaction to it, feels like watching sports, and observing sportsfans. I don't get it, but I do, and I'm bored with it. I'm a nerd. Politics and industry are for the jocks. Just leave me alone and let me read this book. It kinda sucks, but there's some good bits once in awhile.
It got me thinking and debatin' stuff. I suppose that's goodness.
--
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. - Abraham Maslow