Customer Reviews

The Spirit in the Gene: Humanity's Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature (Comstock Book)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

Reg Morrison has been able to take a few basic scientific proofs, put them together and achieve a conclusion that no scientist can argue with. Yet humanity is so amazingly, head-buttingly programmed to believe itself mystically created and guided that most readers will be unable to drop those "self-importance" blinders even as they read this simple truth. He realizes that fact, and realizes also that it doesn't matter.

We are what we are, and we're going where we're going. Changing our "progress" to give the human branch (of our real species) a longer stretch on earth would be quite undesirable as far as nature is concerned. There is no choice in the matter - we do what comes naturally. In our case, that would be self-extinction on the double-quick. Hey, don't worry about it!

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!"

Why is economic theory so screwed-up? Why do economists invariably assume what they hope to prove? Or what's even more incredible, why does everyone on the planet seem believe this stupidity? Obviously, we must answer these questions before we can even hope to solve our collective survival problem.

Guess what? Humans are genetically predisposed to believe in mystics, UFO's, Neoclassical Economic Theory, good-luck charms, etc.! In short, we evolved to believe in all kinds of gods -- including the Free Market God.

Reg Morrison wrote the book I wanted to write. The forward is written by Lynn Margulis. Morrison's book is endorsed by E.O. Wilson of Harvard, and Thomas Eisner of Cornell. If you are ready for some answers, read The Spirit in the Gene : Humanity's Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature by Reg Morrison, Lynn Margulis from Cornell University Press

(This was a 07 August, 1999 BrainFood Book Alert! Permission to reprint granted!)

This book puts the entire human predicament in perspective. It clearly explains how we got to the point of six billion people on a small, fragile planet and why we are unable to stop ourselves from multiplying our way into a disaster. Reg Morrison has done his research and the conclusions he draws, while not pleasant, make a lot of sense. I've read a lot of environmental books and this one is one of the best. Highly recommended.

Most of the unfavourable reviews on this page seem to come from people that haven't read the book, or at least not all of it. Read it for yourself then come back and see quite how much those reviewers have missed. It will also be apparent how much the emotionally driven nature of the negative reactions actually support Morrison's conclusions.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

As I looked at the CNN tv coverage on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 of the nice folks in Iowa mulling over their choices for Republican front runner to combat Obama this coming November, I was pleased that our country was engaged in a time worn (if only a brief couple of centuries here) democratic process of trying to pick the best person to lead us.

What were the messages coming from these candidates? They bespoke of a complete disconnect from the real issues which confront human kind.

Having only been around a brief 80 years myself, who am I to judge the future? Or for that matter who alive can do so. We have many pundits of all stripes doing so, so my continuous note of pessimism can't make any impression.

That fact will not matter, because the coming apocalypse due to excess humans on our small planet will be the factor that will govern us and everyone on the planet.

Many have predicted this happening and observable facts from around the planet support the thesis that it has already well begun to occur.

Thus, when I came across a book by Reg Morrison entitled "The Spirit in the Gene: Humanity's Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature" written in 1999, published 11 years ago which so eloquently put the case for restraint, I found a kindred spirit who has been saying many of the things I have written about and thought about and talked about for years.

The book got only 16 reviews, mostly favorable, eleven of them Five Stars (highest rating). The lead review from Ron Patterson says, "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." The only One Star(lowest) review lauds the author's description of how we got into this disastrously dangerous human growth situation, but decries its "hubristic fantasy: They pretend that they can "step outside" of their own human selves and perceptions, take a so-called "objective" viewpoint (though, needless to say, they do not hesitate in piling on assumption after assumption), and essentially give an absolute description of human nature and society based solely on genetic determinism."

In 2000 the world population was slightly over 6 billion. Now fast forward to today, when the world's human numbers are slightly over 7 billion, a billion increase in 11 or 12 years.

One can argue that logical humans will make the changes necessary to avoid the disaster Morrison project, and certainly much has been written about efforts to quell growth, ut much more has been done to damage the planet than preserve it.

And as the stock of less educated, more desperately poor and oppressed human numbers are added (over 1% per year), the case for reason and restorative measures gets less and less sturdy.

A quote from Morrison's 2000 book gains even more credibility today:

Chapter 7: Page 153-4 The Case against Us
Let us for a moment indulge our anthropocentric imagination and visualize ourselves facing a jury of cosmic peers. The prosecution is having a field day. "Here was a planet of moderate mass and gravity, perfectly placed in relation to the sun; a blue, rain-washed sphere, superbly managed by the diverse organic products of four billion years of painstaking biological evolution. Here, truly, was the Camelot of the cosmos. And look at it now! Its air and water are polluted, half of its forests felled and burned, its wetlands drained, much of its topsoil blown into the sea, and the rich fabric of life that once adorned the biosphere torn to shreds. How could this galactic pearl have fallen so easily into such crude, unsuited hands? And what of the accused, these hairless, underdeveloped, quarrelsome apes, equipped with little more than glib tongues, sharp wits, and nimble fingers; how could they have wrought such havoc so swiftly? And on what authority?"

One can pray our One Star reviewer is correct, but the Five Star reviewers get my vote.

I skimmed much of the text about how we are destroying the balance of life on the planet. That is obvious and I wanted to know what he had to say about why we are not clever or wise enough to stop.

I found the later part of the chapter 8, "The Spirit in the Gene", to be the important discussion. How it may have been to our advantage not to use our reason, to have it available only as a tool to our more basic biological imperatives. Why that is a trap we may not escape. Very well done and interesting.

He is a thinker and a reporter and not a biologist and the book was written a decade ago; we now have more information about human genetics. Still it is easy to understand the and appreciate the argument he makes.

He makes a memorable comparison between the male bowerbird and the human male, using displays of material wealth to gain mates. "The successful performers now tend to leave behind an astonishing assortment of concrete, steal, bricks, mortar, heavy metals, plastics, pesticides, and other toxic wastes.... These substances are just as much a part of the biological waste of Homo sapiens as the discarded tail feather of a peacock or the twiggy bower and blue clothes pins of the satin bowerbird."

This book is so thought provoking, that even if you reject his thesis outright, (which is remarkably difficult considering the evidence), it will be one of the most profound reads of a lifetime.

It challenges the foundation of nearly everything you've ever considered about God, mankind, and our home in the food chain, while pointing out all the many things we overlook, ignore, or just see past, that have been staring us in the face since our ancestors had faces and genes that fueled the belief that we were unique and brilliant creatures.

The book changed the way I see myself, the world, and humanity forever. If it were available in a more reasonably priced edition, I would gift it to nearly everyone I know.

Other than that, it is not for the feint-of-heart, as it is in essence, a book that yells "fire" in a crowded room after pointing out each and every one of the sealed exits.

Read the book. Have a nice fate.