The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History [Paperback]

I can't think of a great many books that have truly changed the way I view and think about the world (Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn being the only other one that springs to mind right now), but this is certainly one of them. In it, Bloom theorises that we all compose the individual components of national social superorganisms, and uses historic examples and scientific evidence to show how these superorganisms are knitted together by a combination of in-built, animalistic, biological urges and the influence of over-riding, virulent ideologies (or 'memes'). He goes on to explain how and why Mother Nature pits us against ourselves and forces us to abide by a 'pecking order', and what happens to those on the various strata. But, he postulates, just as the human body kills over 200 billion red blood cells per day in order to live and progress, so violence, war and evil has been built into each of us as a means by which the indivudual superorganisms can shed the components that no longer serve a purpose within it, so that it may evolve and live better in the future. Bloom ends the book on a positive note by theorising that (though it often seems otherwise) we are today as a race, through the sacrifices of the past, moving closer together and progressing towards a place in which the human race will come together as one superorganism. He also stresses that, if we are to survive as a species, we must learn to overcome, circumnavigate, or maybe 'cure' the animalistic part of our brain that drives us towards violence against one another.

That said, the above explanation really doesn't do the book justice; there is much more to it than that which I've attempted to lay out above, and I found the whole thing to be a completely fascinating read. It is written in a frank, easy-to-understand style, and the frequent historical and scientific references really help you to understand and contextualize the ideas that Bloom is trying to get across.

I would thoroughly recommend the book to anyone who thinks that, from what they've heard about it, they might be even remotely interested in it.

This book promises to be a groundbreaking exploration into gestalts and the nature of the 'superorganism'.

And it is; the first 5 chapters are like a revelation, you feel as though youre being ushered into a new world of enlightenment, and by the first 100 pages or so youve left the now rather backward seeming 'modern' world behind and are part of the new intellectual elite.

However as is the problem with books that rely on a simple idea, the book quickly runs out of steam at the half way mark and begins to over-rely on the anecdotal rather than the empirical.

Its a shame because in the first half there's some very strong empirical evidence for his central idea in group selection theory. But he simply doesnt pursue it enough and ends up relying instead on recounting lengthly episodes of world history.

Not that this isnt enjoyable, my general knowledge of history is shaky at best so this book felt like a refresher course in the numerous ancient civilisations that have reined.

The problem is though that youve probaly heard it all before, the same goes for alot of the animal behaviour/psychology experiments that are scattered throughout the book as well. Alot of the evidence used is really common knowledge that you could probably find in a modestly stocked local library.

This is a disapointment as given the size of the bibliography i was expecting Bloom to draw on some incredibly esoteric and interesting sources. Not that he doesnt - he does, but very very rarely.

I understand though that this is a book intended to appeal to the casual reader so i am prehaps being alittle too harsh, and have maybe allowed my expectations to get the better of me here.

However i think a genuine criticism that can be leveled at the book is how astonishingly sloppy the last 7 chapters or so are.

Bloom almost seems to assume that hes fully hooked you in with his ideas by this point and lets rip with any old assertion he can dream up and correlates anything with everything in a final atempt to solidify the credibility of his theory in your mind.

To use one example he atempts to correlate the Japanese work ethic to their increased life-expectancy in comparison to the American population.

Of course there are so many factors involved in life expectancy that to attribute the cause to one sole factor only ends up making Bloom appear overly hyperbolic in his evidence gathering.

Not only do the latter chapters get extremely sloppy, the book suddenly transforms into a direct call to americans to 'watch out' and not lose their position in the global pecking order.

I cant really blame Bloom for wanting to protect the interests of his own country, however refering to the reader as if they too are an American citizen throughtout most of the book comes over as extremely patronizing.

As someone well educated in anthropology and sociology youd expect Bloom not to make such a rudimentary error as this.

Its as if he never expected anyone to read his book outside of the US, either hes overly modest or hes commited the first sin of anthropology - not being able to see beyond his own culture.

All these things aside i would still recommend this book to anyone, i just dont think he quite makes the solid case for society as a superorganism that he thinks he has.

The idea behind the theory is prehaps more than the sum of the evidence that supports it at this point i think its fair to say.

Id definitely recommend using this book as a steppingstone for further (more critical) research and a means to expand your own ideas of society and the superorganism.

12 years in the making this book thoroughly and authoritatively examines human nature from a number of perspectives and fuses them with history, psychology and behaviour, providing insight into the very mechanisms that drive humans to exhibit such brutal yet constructive behaviours throughout history upto the present. Bloom cleverly illustrates that the fundamental concepts of the superorganism, ideas and the pecking order which constitute his 'lucifer principle' dynamically interact to produce the contrasting extremes of violent and creative behaviours of humans which have characterised our bloody rise to civilisation.
A book that at moments makes you resent mother nature for imbuing us with such a necessary capacity for destruction, Bloom finally delivers with an optimistic outlook for the future of the human race.