Dr. Gary Ackerman reviewed The Lucifer principle. by Howard Bloom
Lucifers Principle
2 stars
Great claims... not realized.
Paperback, 466 pages
English language
Published Sept. 15, 1995 by Atlantic Monthly Press.
In the course of his inquiry, Howard Bloom became convinced that evolution could explain the fundamentals of human nature and the broad sweep of human history. He is not alone. It is no longer heretical to study our own species as one of evolution's creations, and many books are appearing on the subject. The Lucifer Principle, however, does not merely report on the rapid developments that are taking place within academia. Howard Bloom has his own vision of evolution and human nature that many scientific authorities would dispute. He is a heretic among former heretics. The bone of contention is the organismic nature of human society. - Foreword.
Great claims... not realized.
A semi-heretical look at our curious species using sociobiology, meme theory, and facts that don’t fit well into consensus reality (did you know that tuberculosis cases declined by 97% between 1800 and 1945 — before antibiotics came into the picture?). Bloom believes that like ants, bees, and slime molds, human beings join as individuals into assemblages of distributed pseudo-tissue in a larger “superorganism” — and that the traits of this superorganism are the understudied key to our history and destiny.