Rating: 
Summary: Tastes great, less filling
Review: I have to confess, I bought the book for the most frivolous of reasons. I thought it looked like a whacked-out piece of intellectual heresy, and so it seems I got what I wanted, altogether. A fine piece of blarney laced with great historical anecdote, scientific and economic ideas, and a few really good ones mixed in there too.
I liked a few things about his general thesis, too. To drastically over-simplify (which Bloom is fond of doing) I will say that it is an essay on evolution, both of ideas and societal structures as well as the evolution of life forms, which makes some revealing comparisons between life forms and ideas, social conventions and structures, philosophies, etc.. He then ambles on to a general look at history and particularly the history and prospects of the U.S., in the light of his darwinist view on all things.
My most general complaint is that the typical "darwinist" view Bloom embraces is a reductionist one, where beings, systems, communities and all things that evolve, are subject to the rules of the pecking order and fight-or-flight, etc., and nothing else. The popular view of evolution or "Darwinism" is still burdened with the notion of "survival of the fittest" being all about struggling and fighting, but that is mainly a projection of the 19th C British or American mindset, which is the prominent time and place that "evolution" and Charles Darwin became public domain. Had the theory of evolution been first publicized in another civilization, perhaps less emphasis would have been laid on competition, and more on community and mutuality. (Darwin himself actually had a lot more to say than most people know about cooperation and harmony, but the classic "Darwinism" is a vision of a bunch of "rugged individualists" duking it out in some Western movie or something.) I think that is the great hole in his general philosophy as far as this book, and of the 20th C American outlook altogether. (And I think it's telling that an essayist who made his living publicising 20th C American pop music displays such a profane view of life.)
I enjoyed the book, and found the general thesis over-simple, yet laced with revealing glimpses, too. And also a good few ideas or pieces of anecdote that are pretty weak, even at first glance. The conclusion for the entire essay is particularly weak, as if he really enjoyed his talk on memes, viral ideas, etc., and then kind of ran out of steam.
I'd say the book can stimulate conversation, especially the first part, where he talks at some length about ideas and thoughts being just like living things, and having some of the same traits. That is the really tasty stuff, and is a topic I can use more of. And he really tries to have a big panoramic view of history, evolution, the American "manifest destiny" and economics, in light of this newer (somewhat) scientific thinking, and he has some ideas to offer, but overall the book lacks a unifying theme or thesis, as does life itself without any higher goal than dominance in a "grand pecking order."
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning View of Contemporary Culture
Review: 'The Lucifer Principle' draws together over 25 years of cutting-edge research into socio-biology, memetics, cultural transformation theory, and socio-political theory to examine the hidden impulses that pervade our society. The book has fundamental insights into the nature of Evil, and the longterm - and often unappreciated - power of 60 million year old genetic programs and deep brain structures.Deftly written with intelligence and wit, Bloom is able to make contemporary science directly relevant to the new reader. He draws on many cultural, historical, and scientific examples to examine key principles: the pecking order, the superorganism (group-mind), and the meme. He writes provocatively on the Closing of the American Mind amidst geo-political chaos, the impact of neuro-biological research on feminism and other debates, and pulls apart group politics and political fanaticism with grat verve. Bloom is criticised by some pro/con extremists as simply attacking Islam, but a close reading of his work shows an awareness of the coming crisis with Islam (Samuel P. Huntington) and the dangers of militancy in attacking the contemporary Open Society. Bloom is not above demolishing other fanaticisms either. 'The Lucifer Principle' has become one of the most influential science books since its publication, hailed by 22 world scientists as a major work. Hidden throughout the text are revelations on Bloom's pioneering use of perceptual engineering within the rock PR industry (his clients included Michael Jackson, Prince, Bette Middler, Simon & Garfunkel, AC/DC, and Joan Jett), and hints at the future direction of the landmark 'International Paleopsychology Project' he now runs. The book is extensively annotated, but is easily readable and accessible - a testament to Bloom's skill as a writer. Few books will change your life or conceptual worldview. This is definately one of them. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Careful Thinkers Beware! Frustration Ahead.
Review: Bloom's claim that his book is a "Scientific Expedition" is what caught my interest in the bookstore, and turned out to be the basis of the betrayal I felt at reading it. While there may be some interesting (and perhaps even true!) ideas presented in the book, the fact is that the presentation undermines them so badly that it is hard to give credibility to any of them. Obviously, Bloom is well equipped with an arsenal of historical fact. However, his use of historical anecdote to "prove" points should rankle anyone familiar with careful scientific thought. Examples can be found in history to prove virtually any point, and Bloom lacks compelling evidence to support his thoughts. Most offensive to my sensibilities were his lumping of all Islamic and Native American cultures as inheretly violent. His evidence that this is the nature of Native Americans? Well, the "bloodthirsty savage" passage was written by someone who many Native Americans considered a friend! (I can just see this historian; "No, really, some of my best friends are Indians!") What bothered me more than anything, however, was Bloom's relentless abuse of the ideas of Richard Dawkins. He rides Dawkin's thinking on "memes as replicators" to an absurd horizon. At the same time, he promotes his "superorganism" concept, which has none of the properties of replication. He bases this "superorganism" idea on a group selectionist argument that has been debunked so thorougly that I find it hard to believe that he didn't deliberately omit the counterarguments. Personally, I was familiar enough with Dawkin's Selfish Gene theory to see the gaping holes in Bloom's thinking. In other areas where I have no such knowledge, I have to face the likelihood that the same careless thinking probably went in to his conclusions. Hence my mistrust of ANY points Bloom is trying to make. If you need further evidence of Bloom's readiness to dismiss inconvenient facts in order to make his point, I suggest you reread the concluding chapter. I find it telling that Bloom, in the space of a paragraph, casually dismisses a law of thermodynamics as "wrong". Such a thorough lack of understanding of his subject matter is a very un-scientific approach. The cover says the book is a work of "intellectual courage". This may be. (I certainly find it courageous to be so willing to be potentially so wrong on so many points, and to present ideas with such weak evidence.) As intellecual as it may be, it does not stand up scientifically. Bloom may need to narrow his field in order to be up-to-date on all of the relevant information, or drop his pretense at scientific accuracy.
Rating: 
Summary: provacotive but disappointing
Review: Essentially Bloom reminds us that ours is a dog eat dog and very dangerous world. The behavior of caged rats, barnyard hens, apes, chimps, baboons, human tribes and nations are all similar for a reason: the Lucifer Principle (LP) is bred in our bones by a Nature that only wants the hardiest organisms, super-organisms, and memes to survive. Bloom blames the Christian Church for inventing the character of an evil Lucifer (as opposed to a value neutral functionary in Satan), tells us that biologically we are programmed to be murderously competitive and despicably hypocritical, tells us that the Principle may destroy humanity, and sugggests how we can avoid this fate: get ourselves on the first space-ark heading out to a newly terra-formed planet. (Of course, that sort of begs the question per the LP as to whether Earth and New Earth aren't going to behave towards one another in the same way as New and Old Chimp troops did: murder, conquest, and rape.) I have a hard time calling his work "science," but Bloom does make a number of points, analogies, and arguments that, even though often overly simplistic, are worth careful consideration. Let's call it, "dilletante science." Many of his points are valid and most all are provocative. If nothing else, he encourages his reader to reconsider what he thinks is evil and to take evil (i.e. the LP) very seriously and without the customary tripe and naive delusions which surfeit our culture and political discussions. The book could also be titled: The Jaundiced View of an Agnostic Former Entertainment Executive, Pandora with Very Little Hope, Cain's Old and New World Order, or Real-Politik Today as in the Days of Noah. According to Bloom, Jesus gave his disciples permission to hate the rich (that was really news to me) and the Church has throughout history been full of every sin known to man (no kidding, both wheat and tares in the Body of Christ!) In other words, Christ isn't the answer; He's irrelavant and the Church is just part of the problem. The most urgent problem for Bloom however is not fundamentalist Christians, spoiled slackers, anti-progress Luddites, or Chinese communists. It is the Prophet Mohammed and his meme, Islam. For the sake of Allah, too many Moslems with too much oil money, leisure, testosterone, and WMD's want to be top dog now and view their non-Moslem neighbors as fit for the slaughter and suitable for either converting or killing. (Thanks to the LP, the higher we are in the pecking order of nations, the more worthy of slaughter we are.) For this argument alone, I suspect that this book is a genuine sign of our times, and thus, for this reason alone, worth reading. If it does not actually shape current thinking in the US, it at least anticipates and/or reflects a significant and growing body of it. If you don't see yourself in the Lucifer Principle, it's a sure bet you'll see your enemy, and that, as far as Bloom is concerned, proves one of his most important points.
Rating:
Summary: A great book to read and reflect on
Review: Howard Bloom's book has an interesting thesis: humans constitute a "super-organism" the same way cells constitute an amoeba. As human super-organisms (tribes, countries) fight each other for resources, the humans in them will justify horrendous acts (wars, genocide, taxation) that they would condemn on an individual level.
Close, but not quite. An amoeba's every cell might itch for the next kill, but not every cell of the super-organism called United States is itching for the next war; far from it. The solution to this discrepancy is in the "cell structure" of a country. You'll see that the country is guided by a small group of criminal cells (government leaders) which leech the other cells (citizens) by force and deceit, using taxes, wars and similar devices in the process. What is the natural equivalent of a bunch of parasite cells that only live off the others, building an ever bigger group? Cancer. Okay, perhaps cancer isn't the most flattering metaphor for government, but it fits the model disturbingly closely: the unstoppable growth of cancer kills the organism the same way the unstoppable growth of government (and its two main products, taxes and war) so far killed every major society from Ancient Egypt through the Mayans to the Roman Empire. (Tax historian Charles Adams documents this pretty convincingly in his books.)
Well, let's try Bloom's thesis. If the forces of the nature and the forces of society function really similarly, then the unstoppable growth of government and the unstoppable growth of cancer stem from the same cause - the growth control mechanism became impaired. Did we just get a fresh insight into cancer research from an observation in sociology? Get the book; reflecting on Blooms' ideas (and sometimes correcting them a bit) can lead us into quite new discoveries.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not good
Review: I do not dispute the force of this book, nor the arguments this book has caused. It certainly intrigued me at many points; however, I call into question Mr Bloom' villification of testosterone. Anyone who has ever required supplimental testosterone
(certain cancer patients,etc) have levels higher than that of the most violent criminal offenders without the increase in aggression that Mr Bloom claims should happen. He points to a few well publicized incidents of "roid rage" which may have more to do cause wise with the mindset/culture of steroid abusers than the level of testosterone in their system.
Read this book to have something to talk about rather than let it steer you.
Rating:
Summary: The Lucifer Principle
Review: I wrote this review for my Grandchild who will be entering college this September. I recommended this book to her because I felt it had an excellent perspective on world history and world cultures. Here is what I told her: Howard Bloom's thesis is: As a planet, we must learn to live together with respect for each of the cultures. If we don't organize a planetary world order the result may be that we blow ourselves up. Very plausible! In formatting world order a conflict arises between competing tribes. The evolution of our DNA and our brain, especially, begins billions of years ago and our genetic material contains remnants of the first reptilian brain which was programmed with basic motor skills and survival techniques. Mr. Bloom describes the evolutionary process of the brain as first forming into a unit the size of a peach seed and increasing in size with each level of evolution--evolving from basic survival to an organism capable of calculating equations and having sensitivity to our fellow man and the historical stages throughout time. Unfortunately, it is the peach pit remnant in our brain that houses our innate survival genes and which we revert to in tense situations and which causes us to ultimately reach low-level tribal feelings of conflicts. However, during the billion-year course of evolution, we developed filters in the brain which we have learned to apply when we find ourselves in a warlike relationship. Easy to say, but difficult to practice as history will teach us. One of the final developments of the DNA and brain gave us the ability to dream and stratagize plans to build a peaceful world. Again, easy to say: We live in a disparate world where third world countries are struggling to find a piece of bread and it's very reasonable for them to think that, "We have all the bread". Hence, we experience events such as the World Towers Destruction. Note: This book was copyrighted in l995 before the Towers fell and as such the Towers are not a part of this book. We all understand the icon of the Towers and we learn from Mr. Bloom's historical descriptions that these events have taken place for thousands, or millions, or... of years all over the world. In the first world countries we find we no longer are in a survival mode but are on a higher plane of evolution and technology with time to create ideas which lead to ideologies and Mr. Bloom terms these ideas as "memes". Individual organisms do not exist alone by the very nature of man because we either die out of lonliness which creates illness or we self-destruct. Instead the individual organisms segregate themselves by "memes" and form superorganisms who debate and fight for their individual ideas of religion or political systems. We learn how we arrived at the threshhold of blowing ourselves up and by studying we can see the process and the steps to be taken to achieve world order. We are not promised early results, even after milleniums of history, but we have the hope and no choice but to take that path to peace. Since l946 we have statistics that show that the preferred way to achieve this world order is to form democratic communities and nations. These stats show that democracies make fewer attacks on their neighboring tribes or countries. One of the important reasons to read this book is to gain a comprehension of the historical process of the evolution of the socialization of our planet. By gaining this understanding, we find a sense of control in our individual being and the very accomplishment of being in control protects our health and quality of life simply because we lessen the stress and anxiety such as posed by wars. Read this book to learn how man developed through the ages and how this development staged us for our predicaments today. Understand why this is and you will eliminate a lot of worry and stress from your life.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read that makes you think
Review: I'm not saying I agree with everything in this book, but it is my favorite book. As you read it, you can feel yourself actually becoming smarter. He is able to make history more interesting than any author I've ever read. Sure, he comes across as opinionated, but he's clever. If I could eat dinner with one person and pick at their brain, it'd be Bloom. And even if you don't agree, at least he makes you think. This book reminds me of Guns, Germs, and Steel, only better.
Rating:
Summary: May not be "scientific", but will certainly make you think
Review: Part psychology, part history, and part biology, The Lucifer Principle is very different from anything you've probably ever read on the above subjects. The entire book is written to put forth the theory that evil, violence, and most human behavior deemed "immoral" is all part of natures plan for us to evolve. The evolution being of the "super organisms" that Bloom discusses in much detail throughout the book. It's rather fast paced, and is easier to read than most books of it's type. Many of the theories are interesting, and several examples are cited to back up his ideas. It may not be the most scientific book ever written, but it's definitely entertaining. I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading about why us humans are the way we are. Read it with an open mind, and it is sure to make you think and look at the world around you in a new light.
Rating:
Summary: Chariot of the Memes
Review: Since several prior reviews get more into the details of Bloom's thesis I'll just cut to the chase. This book is an enjoyable read which starts out strong (big bang) but ends with a whimper.
Using timelines in a manner very unfaithful to chronology, he basically sets up the scenario that Memes are the next step in the evolution of life on planet Earth. These "memes" (superorganisms) have an agenda all their own, indifferent to our human notions of Good/Evil,pain/pleasure, et al.
His main point at book's end is that The Lucifer Principle consists of the holy trinity of superorganism-ideas-the pecking order. We are ALL "puppets on a string".
Impling that the Memes have a purpose (of sorts) which may or may not be percieved as benificial to the human species...these Memes are a tool of Nature and the essense of "becoming".
Cool idea, probably works better as speculative fiction though. Author Bloom's intent is to make us aware of our actions in life, as individuals and as social animals. He (Bloom) constantly tells the reader that Memes use violence as a force of change (ie evolution) and that Memes can maintain their control over humans through our dependence on social order (social systems), or the illusion thereof (religions).
This intrinsic desire for control, expansion, and continuity in our lives is the very opiate which blinds us.
Towards the end of the book though, Bloom really offers no solution to his "created" dilemma. We are now acutely aware of the pecking order, the wanton use of violence when deemed necessary, the overall potential "evil" of human nature. Now what?
The book ends with his plea for a new social order, one which can attempt to weed out those ultra-violent strains and hence bring humankind to a new level. Seems I've heard this before.
Perhaps some insight to human behavior is gained by reading this book...it IS a fun read.
Still, Memes or no Memes, pain still hurts and religion is a comfortable illusion many choose dispite common sense. Oh well, it's back to the pecking order for me...with sharper teeth.
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