Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Spirit in the Gene: Humanity's Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature by Reg Morrison, Lynn Margulis ISBN: 0-8014-3651-6 Publisher: Comstock Pub Assoc Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.82 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Exactly what is happening and why you don't believe it.
Comment: Reg Morrison tells us, in this book, not only what is happening to the world's ecosystem but he also tells us why most people do not believe it. Morrison lays it out step by step. He explains why the population, in the last century has grown at such an exponential rate, and why that growth will soon come to an end....and head dramatically in the other direction. But one of the most important things covered in this book is why we refuse to believe the obvious, why we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Easter Islanders and refuse to believe that our actions must inevitably lead to a dramatic population collapse.
Morrison tells it like it is, we are by nature anthropocentric and have ultimate faith in the ability of Homo sapiens to overcome any difficulty. Faith, Morrison tells us, is the magic ingredient that enables to make that wondrous leap from grim reality into the totally bloody ridiculous. So those who have given this book one star are the true believers. They have criticized it because they say it smacks of genetic determinism, a term invented by the critics of sociobiology, and not subscribed to by sociobiologists themselves. Or they have criticized the book because it does not offer a rosy picture where we are all saved by the wonders of science. Morrison paints science as one of the culprits in the rape of the world and not our ultimate savior. That is a message that raises the ire of many a true believer.
Yet all Morrison is trying to tell us is that what has happened many times in the past on a much smaller scale, is happening again on a worldwide scale. And it will happen because our population has already reached plague proportions and is now way beyond any sustainable level.
This is the very best book I have read in years, and I read an awful lot of books.
Rating: 5
Summary: The elusive beast within
Comment: Reg Morrison summarizes in succinct and personal polemic style what problems the human race really faces, and does a good job of unmasking the nature of our mystically constructed delusions. It is a short book for covering such a broad sweep of our evolutionary and cultural heritage. Possibly some minor details are amiss, but the message is clear. For such an ultimately pessimistic view of what we prize most about ourselves, its punches are well delivered.
According to Morrison, globalism is heading for global ecological collapse under the weight of the human plague, and will be followed by massive decline in human numbers, if not outright extinction. As the situation gets more dire, the search for mental escape in our mystical beliefs in culture-land, nationalism, media will increase, not decrease. We will be all mentally "off the planet" by the time we are kicked off it.
Taking his presentation of facts and conclusions seriously means that the present course of human affairs is still heading for disaster. I present some conclusions of the book. Reg debunks some of our cherished mystical beliefs, and counterpoises his grim facts, and I present here his main conclusions.
Belief 1. Humans have spiritual autonomy and are therefore accountible for their actions.
Fact 1. We are genetically driven just like any other animal. We have no mind other than the body, and we lack behavioural choice.
Belief 2. The environment is inherently stable and will rebound if given half a chance.
Fact 2. The environment is a chaotic system and is therefore inherently unstable and always has been. If it were not so, evolution could not have occurred. Rebound is a not characteristic of the system.
Belief 3. With enough moral courage, political will and technical know how, time and money, the environment could be repaired.
Fact 3. Most environmental damage is inevitable product of overpopulation. The more technological the attempted solutions, the greater the environmental debt. All human activity adds to environmental debt.
We fall for the false beliefs most of the time, because humans have a split brain, with "two spheres of awareness available to us, with two entirely separate behaviour control systems, one rational and one entirely non-rational.... ". Unfortunately for the human species " ... the rational brain should be viewed, not as the principal generator of behaviour and the pivot on which the species turns, but as an optional extra designed to be switched off the moment any serious evolutionary matters, such as genetic survival or propagation, arise."
The best course for human species survival would be a global, concious coordinated reduction in human environmental impact, and a strong reduction in birth rate. Instead we are probably going to get conflict, continued exploitation to death and extinction, with war and upheavals on the scale of the Biblical Revelations. As Reg says, "All species must fail eventually, especially the very successful ones, or the whole system will grind to a halt". Reg hopes we will wipe ourselves out quickly as plagues tend to do, so the system can carry on without us.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Stuff
Comment: The author thinks our species is genetically programmed for extinction and can't do anything about it. He may be right. Species usually disappear immediately after an enormous run-up in population, and our population has doubled in the last 50 years. (Without people generally taking much notice of it, I might add.)
Morrison doesn't think we have much choice in the matter, and I couldn't help remember the comment of the lead character in Neil Elliott's THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JESUS CHRIST, when asked if mankind had free will sufficient to control his destiny. "Of course I believe in free will," he said, "--I have no choice!"
 |
Title: The Oil Factor: How Oil Controls the Economy and Your Financial Future by Donna Leeb, Stephen Leeb ISBN: 0446533173 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author by Michael T. Klare ISBN: 0805055762 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 13 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies by Richard Heinberg ISBN: 0865714827 Publisher: New Society Pub Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles ISBN: 156384155X Publisher: Huntington House Pub Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
 |
Title: Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 0805074007 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
