Customer Reviews

The Values of Belonging: Rediscovering Balance, Mutuality, Intuition, and Wholeness in a Competitive World

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Flinders continues her loving exploration of how our lives have gotten out of synch with our hearts. She describes the values that evolved in the early days of human community and how, relatively recently in evolutionary time, changes in human economic systems shifted us away from the satisfaction of some of humanity's deepest needs. Ever the compassionate optimist, she suggests ways of moving forward out of this impasse into a way of living where humans can live in peace with their environment and with each other.

This is, to me, a wonderful book. Flinders has really done her homework and been around the block. The writing is clear, and the argument unfolds beautifully. (Maybe it's just that I'm wrestling with similar ideas in my own work, so it all seems to work so nicely.)

The basic idea is that the "world's problems" are more than just too much testosterone -- we have (very cool) intrinsic values that evolved over millions of years in the context small nomadic bands, but are now trying to cope with something altogether different. This misfit is what Flinders explores, from a very new and interesting perspective.

Anyway, it's a delightful find, and it's on top of my reading pile.

This book explores excellent concepts of all values as human and only socially ascribed by gender. It is a important look at what make us alike. However, the writing is circular and at times the logic is ill supported. I recognise that it is typical of feminist writing to be created delibrately in the context of 'a person wrote this' rather than by some all knowing authority. I have read much good feminist writing that does that. This book does not. Many of the small supporting conclusions that the author makes (especially in regard to 'primitive' societies) seem emotional and shallow. The writing style does a great diservice to the wonderful concepts it attempts to display.