Customer Reviews

Burning All Illusions: A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Toward the end of this probing book, Edwards quotes the
comments of a pre-glasnost Soviet visitor to the United States
(I paraphrase the quote here): Your media all report the same stories,
they deliver the same opinions. How does your country manage this so
peacefully? In our country, the government uses coercion to
achieve this result. Here it happens by itself.

Is there a conspiracy in developed countries to tell the populace only
what government and business want it to know? Is big business
in collusion with government to keep the public fat, happy and
ignorant?

No, says Edwards. It's not a conspiracy in the conventional sense where
an elite cadre writes the script and controls the action. It's something
far more disquieting. It's a more subtle and effective kind of force than
the old guns and gulag tyranny. It has a lot to do with self-delusion.

Weaving in generous threads of Chomsky's thought (a man the media extolls as
the most brilliant in his field, yet dismisses as a hopeless crackpot when
he addresses government and society), Edwards makes the case that many of the
world's ills are attributable to the ethos of consumerism and the social and economic
structures that perpetuate it.

Edwards' book makes the reader look at society, business and government from a
different perspective ... a perspective not meant to be comforting, rather a perspective
meant to help the individual regain personal freedoms buried in the detrius of business as usual.

This is not a summer take-to-the-beach book. But if you want some tools to cut
through the political smoke that will swirl this fall, it's well worth the time.

"Burning" is that peculiarly ambitious reading experience which defies categorization. I've personally purchased and given it to nearly a half-dozen friends. The book assumes a need for personal autonomy in a society so committed to denying, even killing that assumption. This book should be cross-references under cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, politics. If you appreciated Phillip Slater's seminal "The Pursuit of Loneliness" or like music by Billy Bragg and Pete Seeger and Sweet Honey in the Rock; if you resent coercion and authority; if you're glad General Pinochet is under arrest; if you question the assumptions of psychology, you'll enjoy this book.

The book is an interesting read. Far from blaming media or government for the world's problems,as some have suggested, it blames the system in which these institutions are founded. (to put it simply)The analyses of the propaganda system and consumerism is excellent, and quite insightful. I am pleased to read someone espousing the virtues of doubt. It is interesting that he doesn't apply this doubt as rigorously to his new beliefs as he does his old ones. He falls into the traps about which he is presumably warning readers. He automatically assumes that suffering is a moral bad and therefore falls into the same trap as his beloved Buddhism. Even though he occasionally quotes Nietzche he ignores his teachings about suffering with a tone that reveals unquestioning belief in the evil of suffering. All the while, he encourages the reader to question unquestionable beliefs, because it is not "reason"able to hold views in that way. I also find it interesting that his reaction to a flawed system is decidely consumeristic. Instead of trying to fix a thing (in this case a system that needs to get rid of externalities to be more equitable), it is much more expedient to simply throw it away and get a new one.

On the whole, a worthwhile read as long as you do listen to Edwards and doubt.

To the other reviews, i would add that this is of the kind of writing that is hard to find after ca. 1930 - one of those rare reminders that the voice of a whole, balanced person is not a neutered voice but a bracingly strong one. Page for page, the writing is easy to read but instantly provides a deep and complex mirror for your own life - kind of like D.H.Lawrence (as an essayist) combined with Gary Zukav.

If that seems a stretch, it's an important one to make - e.g, Edward's treatment of Chomsky by way of Joe Campbell is indispensable. Best of all, Edwards works great references and a keen sense of cultural history into this liberating screed, without ever leaving the here and now for the airy heights of intellectualism, a la 'Irrational Man' or Colin Wilson, etc.

Do yourself and every other living being a favor and give this a shot - it's closer to a Western Mahabharata then anything else you're likely to find. I feel John Lennon's ghost smiling every time i crack this book open.

This great book goes to the heart of the matter in dealing with the twin (really the same) problems of individuals feeling f*****-up and the planet being gobbled-up and left for dead by the same. Namely, the Industrial/ Muscular Kristianity paradigm of the last thousand or two years is wholly inappropriate for the health and well-being of life on the planet - very much including the emotional well-being of modern-day humans. Daniel Quinn calls the enemy "Mother Culture" in his book Ishmael, and I daresay the author of this book would agree. Not a depressing book at all, but in fact is very invigorating and inspiring.

The depth and revelations had me riveted to every page. One of the best books I have read in the last ten years.

I was interested in reading this book since no one my husband or I personally know have any perspicacity regarding themselves, others or the culture. I know what Mr. Edwards has accomplished, because I went through "the transformation" and now enjoy happiness and an authentic life. I have learned how to deal with the system & the automatons in it which in itself is a subject worthy of writing about. Now instead of stressful, It has become merely routine. The point is to become independent, develop critical reasoning skills, and have the freedom to develop all your human powers that have been repressed because of the killers of social control and conformity. Mr. Edwards is on the right track. Take the time to read the book and think about what he is really saying. Good luck to you. You can do it.

Despite the provocative title, this is weak tea for anyone familiar with any of the author's preferred sources: Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti etc. I found it extremely difficult to get past his facile and simplistic view equating atheism with not only fundamentalism but also automatically conflating it with nihilism, materialism and consumerism. This is to greatly misunderstand things, in my view. No doubt anecdotal evidence of his opinion could be found, but as a whole the book is extremely anecdotal and more of a personal journey of one admirably well-intentioned person than a rich critical argument. Which is fine, but...

Look to his sources for the goods: Read/hear Chomsky, Zinn, Parenti, Fromm, Fisk and others (like Ernst Becker and documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis) for greater insight. If you have already done so, I would be surprised if you gain a great deal more by reading this book. If you are able to, then more power to you.

Relly well written clear book exposing the truths behind the media spin given to us about the workings of government and big business. A great book for people who have the capacity to think for themselves and want to remove the screen put in front of their eyes by the modern corporate media.

I was interested in reading this book since no one my husband or I personally know have any perspicacity regarding themselves, others or the culture. I know what Mr. Edwards has accomplished, because I went through "the transformation" and now enjoy happiness and an authentic life. I have learned how to deal with the system & the automatons in it which in itself is a subject worthy of writing about. Now instead of stressful, It has become merely routine. The point is to become independent, develop critical reasoning skills, and have the freedom to develop all your human powers that have been repressed because of the killers of social control and conformity. Mr. Edwards is on the right track. Take the time to read the book and think about what he is really saying. Good luck to you. You can do it.