Customer Reviews

An essay on morals

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I am fascinated by anything dealing with psychology, philosophy, logic, and reason. This book was a great short read. It was entertaining and fun. Philip Wylie stated the obvious in the most obvious of ways. I adore this book, and how it points out many misconceptions and irrational thoughts of the average person.

Dealing with philosophical matters like an advanced beast mentality seeking to comfort himself, the reversals of meaning that societies have turned to in religion or philosophy are reduced to praise of a short story:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

War has been replaced in modern political economy by the idea of middle class tax cuts. This review is written in a time which might have a debt crisis, or possibly political denial based on the power which clings to the idea of a special time for middle class tax cuts. The first edition in 1947 was duly impressed by the flash of atomic power that promised special policing powers to top dogs willing to adopt the methods used by the wealthy to wipe out forms of society which compete for the pleasure of self-recognition. When I was young, if anyone born in 1947 can be considered young in November, 1963, when national TV showed Jack Ruby being caught in the act in the basement of the Dallas Police Station, Jack Ruby told the police as they put on the handcuffs:

You all know me. I'm Jack Ruby.

Philip Wylie describes the feeling at moments of contemplation as a perfect work of art expressing all that the evolving planet means:

He is a total work of art,
containing every beast,
exemplifying the dualistic instincts,
appreciating the relationship of each,
whose love is neither tangled in his fears
nor separated from his dark knowledge,
for he has perceived that creation and destruction
are but two opposite events in the existence
of energy and that awareness does not destroy death
but makes it inevitable,
and death does not abolish life
but forever advances awareness.

Philip Wylie wrote this book shortly after World War Two. In that war, a huge number of supposedly rational people had behaved like, um, animals. Now, didn't Carl Jung tell us all that first and foremost, humans are animals? And that animals (including us) are governed by instinct? And much more? Well, Wylie discusses this at length in this short book.

World War Two included some horrifying examples of mass murder, as well as the introduction of nuclear weapons. All this has had the effect of putting our whole species into (in effect) a boat-sized planet (as the author puts it). Wylie concludes that it would thus be fatal for us to pass up the opportunity to create a science of morals.

We see a discussion of religion and science. And with this, Wylie ends his book, having made these rather straightforward points. I feel that the book is not that deep, but what it says is no less important for being pretty much obvious. In addition, Wylie warns us that a large portion of humanity not only acts irrationally much of the time, but is unaware of the existence of this being a problem. These are indeed fundamental problems with society, and at some point we need to face them.

This is a short book, and it is easy to read. One could do worse than simply take the time to read it.