Review: A Dangerous Book.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 8, 2013
As a book, this is not bad per se. The writing is dirge-like and sets the mood of the book well. It's very rigid and lacking the charm usually associated with fiction. Which also contributes to the mood of the book. The plot is simplistic, black and white, and I would say the main trouble with how this is written is that the writing remains rigid, dirge-like and charmless at the exact moment that it should blossom to underscore the 'victory' of the characters.And perhaps it is better for us all that the book doesn't blossom. This book is full of ideas that are rotten at the core, they are like pretty girls with velvet patches covering the pox marks, enticing and making the reader feel intelligent and special for the duration of the book and then leaving them with the lingering scent of perfume they can't afford often, and honestly shouldn't have afforded int he first place. Supposedly this book is designed to illustrate the dangerous nature of collectivism and extol the virtues of individualism, and it's written in such a way to make the reader feel that they are BRILLIANT by coming to the next conclusion in the book before the author makes the point. It is also designed to make the reader feel superior to anyone that disagrees with the author. This book is an indoctrination to a very bad philosophy, designed to soothe and cater to the reader and wrap them up in a feeling of specialness and superiority.Dig deeper in this book and you'll find a wholesale discount of any and all faith/religion, arguments that the ends of progress always justify the means of progress. It's heavily implied in the book that science over-achieved in the past, sending society back to a anachronistic society that was just barely holding together via application of heavy collectivism. That is, that collectivism was the only way to ensure the survival of humans after rampant individualism, capitalism and scientific blunders had nearly destroyed the planet. The main character, at the end of the book, sets humanity right back on the path to destruction because he doesn't believe the elders (who appear to be the sole recipients of the knowledge of what came before) that this destroyed them once and would do so again. But man had to be allowed to triumph over his environment and therefore Equality is the hero, triumphing without consequences!I'm not 'the religious type' nor am I a new-age hippie, but I think those are pretty awful ideas to espouse, especially since this book is regularly handed over to fourteen year olds that are only going to see the main storyline and not the underpinnings. This shouldn't be misunderstood as a story about the triumph of science, nor should it be misunderstood as a philosophy that can actually raise us all up. It's a book about selfish, angry, unadmirable characters that think about the now and never any further than that.Read this book with very open eyes and understand it, but do not mistake it for a good, wholesome book.