Customer Reviews

Eat or Be Eaten : The Truth About Our Species - The Marriage of Darwin and Machiavelli

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

 

 

I wasn't prepared for how profound an impact this book would have on me. While its style is VERY loose and at times frustrating, the book paints a picture of reality that is both disturbing and liberating. At its heart, the book attempts to expose and thus destroy the many invisible constraints others have placed on our lives. Eat or Be Eaten will clearly be despised by those who control others via social and/or religious precepts. For those who've played by "the rules" yet haven't experienced the joy they've been promised, this book will be a breath of fresh air. Near the end of the book is a quote by Christopher Morley that states, "There is only one success - to spend your life in your own way." Eat or Be Eaten is for those who are ready to make this happen.

If we allow ourselves to be trapped between the jaws of our imagination and our reality -- between that better world we dream of and the worse one we inhabit -- we may find our condition a very unsatisfactory one; and one of our traditional compensations is to look down at all those 'lower' forms of life to which we suppose ourselves superior in happiness.

This book provides a mirror, a cracked mirror.

Our human world may seem cruel and brief; but in the rest of nature at least it is worse. This consolation does not bear close scrutiny, for what is revealed through the pages of "Eat or Be Eaten" then is not a universe of hazard-bestowed privilege, one in which man stands highest on the ladder of luck, but one in which -- with a single eXception -- there reigns a mysterious balance and *equality* among all the forms of animate matter. Paraphrasing Darwin, we should call this equality in eXisting **relativity of recompense**

It can be defined thus: ***Relativity of recompense is that which allows, at any stage of evolution, any sentient creature to find under normal conditions the same comparative pleasure in eXisting as all other sentient creatures of its own or any other age.*** Two factors establish this equality among all sentient forms of life, whether they be past or present, simple or compleX, with a life-span of an hour or one of decades. The first is that they are all able to feel pleasure and pain; the second is that not one of them is able to compare its own eXperience of pleasure and pain with any other creature's.

The single eXception to this happy oblivion is man. James Aloysius and friends well describe the quandary of this eXception...

You may not agree with everything written...or even most of it. But it WILL make you think about the concepts brought up. In fact, you'll find yourself re-thinking old beliefs not even specificaly mentioned in the book, because you'll get in the habit of examining things from unusual perspectives while reading this. I give it three stars for philosophy- but five stars for a good read!

This book offers a very new, yet very real, way of thinking and looking at oneself and life... It may appear foreign to many people when they first begin to read, yet the lesson is priceless for everyone... Once a person reads this book, life will never be the same... It helps in the realization that all people possess both positive and negative qualities... And that this is absolutely human and normal... Once the negative qualities are accepted (owned) by the person he/she can begin to integrate both his/her positive and negative parts, and move towards consistency. It also allows the reader to accept human flaws in oneself and in others... It is okay to be less than perfect... It is human to be less than perfect... Learning and accepting these truths are the hard parts... This is a book for the 21st Century... In order for human beings to live full, satisfying, conscious, healthy lives, with healthy relationships, being able to recognize their roles in their successes and failures, this book is an absolute must... It is the first to offer this wonderful new philosophy... A philosophy we all can learn from.

"Eat or Be Eaten...The truth about our species-the marriage of Darwin and Machiavelli" was a surprisingly unique experience. It caught me off guard. What I thought would turn out to be an evening of pleasant reading, has impacted upon my life in a way that I see nothing as I did prior to reading the book. Even those parts of the book I don't agree with have made me think. Those parts that I do agree I now see from a new perspective. It exposes an entire species (of which I am a member). By the time I finished reading this book I had a clear realization of what I must do - actually hopefully what we all must do - if we are to survive and prosper. We haven't been prospering well for the last 5,000 years or so...wars and genocide dominate our history. PG

Finally a new perspective... a REAL look at human beings as we really are as opposed to how we would like to be. Anyone interested in looking at oneself and finding out who he/she is, instead of hiding behind a facade that has been built to protect oneself from criticism would enjoy this book... The book explores human behavior... It offers many literary quotes and historical events to support its thesis.... Very interesting, very informative...

Those interested in sociology and pyschology theories will be very happy. The book has a fluid continuium leading us into the 21st. century and beyond. It helps you look inside yourself and in the end it makes you feel better. As you go along, reading this book, you will re-examine your life and thinking. Don't EXPECT a dry read. I got to meet the authors at a book signing, their talk about the book was riveting and the time just flew by.

Sometimes we can see through a persons writtings into the depths of their soul. The thought of power and self gratification for his efforts, didn't bring the inner peace he so sought after. For there is another adventure ahead I sense, for the author, which will bring to him the desires of his inner most being.

Someone who read between the lines.

P.S Looking forward to your next book.

I was very disapointed with this book. The quotes are probably the best parts, with the original writing sloppy and derivative. The printing was also cheap. The basic ideas come from Nietzsche and you'd do far better to simply read his works. They seemingly disavow Freud, but engage in lots of Jungian psychobabble. Do not buy this; invest in the original authors.

a compellingly fresh perspective on our human psyche and condition. A fascinating read, full of self discoveries. Move over moralists and idealists the twenty first century belongs to those ready to discover and accept a fuller identity!