We've survived so far...
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
If one is looking for predictions of what the new millennium will bring (officially in 2001), these books are not the place to look. Instead, they discuss why the changing calendar affects us humans as much as it does. Kennedy (Sensual Healing, M. Evans, 1996) centers her discussion under three headings: prophecy, rage, and the New Age. Prophecy takes us from the biblical book of Revelation to Nostradamus and a consideration of the prophetic personality. The rage that we currently experience results from various fears and the sense of loss of control, which New Age thinking aims to restore. Kingwell (philosophy, Univ. of Toronto) examines a wide range of phenomena, from AIDS to global warming, that make for millennial anxiety. He skillfully intertwines personal reflections with much reference to history, philosophy, and current cultural phenomena, from the rage for angels to body piercing. He calls the reader to the middle ground, where the anxiety is recognized but not allowed to take over. Both of these timely, accessible works are worthwhile acquisitions for public libraries.?John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Libs., New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A weak and derivative addition to the flood of books presaging the year 2000. Any number of hucksters, hacks, would-be savants, pissant doomsayers, and weird scribblers have vultured with a vengeance onto this purported dawn of a new epoch. Among them, they have managed to regurgitate almost every possible idea or notion about the millennium, no matter how abstruse. In her own contribution to the melee, Kennedy (Sensual Healing, not reviewed, etc.), uncowed by the competition, demonstrates a flair for the unoriginal. Sticking close to her title's unwieldy agenda, she kicks things off with a shallow survey of past prophetic mutterings about the years 2000/2001, rounding up Nostradamus and the other usual suspects. Then we're off on a tour of the conditions--crime, technology, etc.,--that have caused many to feel so lost and fearful that they are ready to trust in all manner of prophecy and prophets, no matter how absurd. Kennedy wraps things up, warmly and fuzzily, by proclaiming that we are in the midst of a grand religious/spiritual revival that, sham shamanists aside, promises not the apocalypse, but a radiant future in which we eventually regain control of our lives and live in harmony with nature: ``We are `healing' the rift between physical reality and spiritual reality, becoming both individually and collectively more `whole' than was possible when our fears for survival so divided us.'' Similar tiresome clich‚s and exhausted platitudes are to be found throughout, and are invariably reinforced by Kennedy's graceless style, which is almost completely lacking in such ornamentations as wit and detail. It is almost enough to make an apocalyptic end of the world seem attractive. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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