The Lucifer principle : a scientific expedition into the forces of history

In the course of his inquiry, Howard Bloom became convinced that evolution could explain the fundamentals of human nature and the broad sweep of human history. He is not alone. It is no longer heretical to study our own species as one of evolution's creations, and many books are appearing on the subject. The Lucifer Principle, however, does not merely report on the rapid developments that are taking place within academia. Howard Bloom has his own vision of evolution and human nature that many scientific authorities would dispute. He is a heretic among former heretics. The bone of contention is the organismic nature of human society. - Foreword. Read more... Abstract: "The Lucifer Priciple" is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that "evil" is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. Read more... Content: Who is Lucifer -- Clint Eastwood conundrum -- The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts -- The Chinese cultural revolution -- Mother nature, the bloody bitch -- Women, not the peaceful creatures you think -- Fighting for the privilege to procreate -- The greed of genes -- The theory of individual selection and its flaws -- Superorganism -- Isolation, the ultimate poison -- Even heroes are insecure -- Loving the child within is not enough -- Us vs them -- The value of having an enemy -- The perceptual trick that manufactures devils -- How hatred builds the walls of society's bungalow -- From genes to memes -- The nose of a rat and the human mind, a brief history of the rise of memes -- How wrong ideas can be right -- The village of the sorcerers and the riddle of control -- The modern medical Shaman -- Control and the urge to pray -- Power and the invisible world -- Einstein and the Eskimos -- The connectionist explanation of the mass mind's dreams -- Society as a neural net -- The expendability of males -- How men are society's dice -- Is pitching a genetically acquired skill -- Oliver Cromwell, the rodent instincts don a disguise -- The invisible world as a weapon -- The true route to utopia -- Why men embrace ideas and why ideas embrace men -- Righteous indignation, greed for real estate -- Shiites -- Poetry and the lust for power -- When memes collide the pecking order of nations -- Superior chickens make friends -- Wordviews as the welding torch of the hierarchical chain -- The barbarian principle -- Are there killer cultures -- Violence in South America and Africa -- The importance of hugging -- The puzzle of complacency -- Poverty with prestige is better than affluence disgrace -- Why prosperity will not bring peace -- The secret meaning of freedom, peace and justice -- The Victorian decline and the fall of America -- Scapegoats and sexual hysteria -- Laboratory rats and the oil crisis -- Why nations pretend to be blind -- How the pecking order reshapes the mind -- Perceptual shutdown and the future of America -- The myth of stress -- Tennis time and the mental clock -- The Lucifer principle. The Lucifer Priciple is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that "evil" is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. In a sweeping narrative that moves lucidly among sophisticated scientific disciplines and covers the entire span of the earth's, as well as mankind's, history, Howard Bloom challenges some of our most popular scientific assumptions. Drawing on evidence from studies of the most primitive organisms to those on ants, apes, and humankind, the author makes a persuasive case that it is the group, or "superorganism," rather than the lone individual that really matters in the evolutionary struggle. But, Bloom asserts, the prominence of society and culture does not necessarily mitigate against our most violent, aggressive instincts. In fact, under the right circumstances the mentality of the group will only amplify our most primitive and deadly urges. In Bloom's most daring contention he draws an analogy between the biological material whose primordial multiplication began life on earth and the ideas, or "memes," that define, give cohesion to, and justify human superorganisms. Some of the most familiar memes are utopian in nature'Christianity or Marxism; nonetheless, these are fueled by the biological impulse to climb to the top of the heirarchy. With the meme's insatiable hunger to enlarge itself, we have a precise prescription for war. Biology is not destiny; but human culture is not always the buffer to our most primitive instincts we would like to think it is. In these complex threads of thought lies the Lucifer Principle, and only through understanding its mandates will we able to avoid the nuclear crusades that await us in the twenty-first century “A philosophical look at the history of our species which alternated between fascinating and frightening . . . like reading Dean Koontz or Stephen King.” — Rocky Mountain News The Lucifer Principle is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that “evil” is a by-product of nature’s strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. In a sweeping narrative that moves lucidly among sophisticated scientific disciplines and covers the entire span of the earth’s—as well as mankind’s—history, Howard Bloom challenges some of our most popular scientific assumptions. Drawing on evidence from studies of the most primitive organisms to those on ants, apes, and humankind, the author makes a persuasive case that it is the group, or “superorganism,” rather than the lone individual that really matters in the evolutionary struggle. But biology is not destiny, and human culture is not always the buffer to our most primitive instincts we would like to think it is. In these complex threads of thought lies the Lucifer Principle, and only through understanding its mandates will we able to avoid the nuclear crusades that await us in the twenty-first century. “A revolutionary vision of the relationship between psychology and history, The Lucifer Principle will have a profound impact on our concepts of human nature. It is astonishing that a book of such importance could be such a pleasure to read.”—Elizabeth F. Loftus, author of Memory