Howard Bloom: The Lucifer Principal
by

Jaye Beldo

Recently, someone recommended that I read The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific
Expedition into the Forces of History by Howard Bloom.  However,  when I got
about three fourths of the way through this excrutiatingly tendentious book, I
realized that there was nothing scientific about it, rather the author was
using his supposedly empirical/objective approach to violence in both the
animal and human worlds as a political platform to promote highly biased
views on such things as Islam which he dedicates many pages to trashing (while
never mentioning once the love and peace centered Sufis or co-operation between
Jewish and Arab families as has been documented). He never mentions Zionist
atrocities whatsoever.  There was much to read in between his own memes indeed
and I found that as much as I tried to side with him on the obviously violent
tendencies of human beings, I could not do so no matter how brilliantly and
abundantly he provided examples of the sheer predatoriness and capacity for
destruction that many life forms possess. Doing so would severely limit a
perspective that I've struggled to maintain and evolve, a sense of openness by
always looking for exceptions to the rule and becoming inspired by these
supposedly rare acts of kindness and cooperation. On a more esoteric note it
appears that Bloom is motivated by unconscious desires or what are called
“sanskaras” in yoga-imprints on the soul from previous incarnations which, if
not eradicated, cause us to behave in not so compassionate/unselfish ways.   It
is a dangerous thing to be unconsciously motivated because it severely distorts
our outlook and causes us to spread memes that are not conducive to such things
as forgiveness, healing and letting go of the past. In Howard's sequel The
Global Brain, however, he focuses more on interspecies symbiosis-cooperation
and intelligence that we humans certainly can aspire to and I found myself
resonating more openly with this book.  Yet it puzzles me why people call The
Lucifer Principle his “masterpiece”. I even heard from the person that
recommended reading The Lucifer Principle (a guy who runs a website called
Brainsturbator) that Bloom continues to say very hateful things about Arabs and
Islam in general, hardly the “scientist” that he supposes that he is, obviously
infected by the very memes he points fingers at throughout his book.  It may
take several lifetimes for him to eradicate his sanskaras-however, if he
focuses more on harmony in nature and in societies, he will then be heading in
a more constructive and cooperative direction.

(C)2008-Jaye Beldo