A Review of "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton

As befits the repetition of history, I don't read a Michael Crichton book because I see it in the bookstores and say 'ah' now there's a book I should read. No! My reading of his books happens because a friend or relative much brighter than myself suggests it would be a good book for me to read! State of Fear is probably a good book for you to read. It has been a best seller, whatever that means. It tells a modestly interesting story.

I'm, like many people, very curious to see the world go in the right directions. I know beauty and pretty things and balance and I like to think positively about how the creatures on our planet will fare. Global warming is in my opinion a bit of blurred pseudoscience written bold well before it's due. As Michael shows in his book, the jurying still very much out. Perhaps, the emphasis is wrongly placed if we think of global warming as a single effect of man's passage on the earth. Sure the globe will get warmer than it otherwise would because we burn stuff in a net sense. We burn and heat things up and the great old earth cools things down again to bring all into balance. That's GAIA, a subtle process of self or cybernetic correcting that the earth as a balancing organism engages in.

Michael conceives of demons and good guys in battle to understand how misfitting it can be to go overboard in any one direction, either abusing the earth or trying to help it too much. We need to recognise that we are part of the problem and part of the solution and the mix is not necessarily balanced.

Hopefully, people can reach into their philosophical beings to devise the energies need to understand better how our world can be made a better place. It's no good believing in myths, such as economic equilibrium or environmental balance. There are many directions that major environmental changes can push people. We need a form of collective wisdom that provides a cushion against the extremes.

As an idealist, I would like to see lushness in the environment and appreciate what Crichton is saying when he points out that our predecessors engineered our present environment much more than we can realise without consideration of the possibilities. He is referring not to the last several hundred years but to millenia. Yes, we are recipients of many cumulative streams of effort going back a very long time.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.