The 5000 Year Leap

This was a book that my dad wanted me to read. It was about the founding of the constitution and how the establishment of that document and the 28 principles it was founded on has given mankind a technological and sociological leap of 500o years. Basically it seems that it was written as a text book for people who want to believe that the founding fathers of the United States were gods among men and staunchly conservative politicians and that the U.S. is God's country and other things I completely don't understand. I have many problems with the book, one of which being his writing style, yet I am glad I read it for the sake of knowing the political perspective of many of the people in this area. I don't really want to write a response to the book, I just wanted to cement the fact that I had read the book in my blog for historical purposes.

Cat's Cradle

Another recently read book was Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle. This was another novel about the nature of human beings. It focused on the two subjects of modernized warfare and politicized religion. The creation of the atom bomb (also of the fake substance ice-nine) is completed by a character that has no interest in any normal social behavior. He is a scientist that cares only to tinker with things and play, and not with the repercussions of his actions. The U.S. military takes advantage of this by giving him ideas to tinker around with until he invents something that can benefit their cause. Hence the creation of the atom bomb and the creation of ice-nine, a substance that was made because the general of the Marines was tired of his men crawling around in the mud, but didn't realize that solving the problem of mud would in essence be the end of the world as we know it. As we explore the mind of Felix Hoenikker through the narrator's interviews of people around him, we also learn about the government of San Lorenzo and the history of that nations political and religious system. The government was founded by two men who wanted to create a sort of utopia for the people there. They first invent a religion based on lies (lies that are admitted lies that you can better your life through believing) and then attempt to spread it together. When they realize that religion is best practiced under persecution one of the founders is "chased" into the jungle and the other places a ban on the practice of said religion (Bokononism). Because of this Bokononism is accepted by all who live on the island as their religion. At the end of the novel, the sons and daughters of Felix Hoenikker give away their inheritance of ice-nine for personal gain and it is used by one of those to whom it was given. After it is used the world is introduced to a new ice age, where bokononists are encouraged to end their sufferings by eating the ice-nine that surrounds them.

I have really enjoyed all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels that I have read and this one was not an expection. His ability to reflect reality in a ridiculous and humorous way while still giving a highly refined and sensitive perspective on life is something that reaches me on levels much higher than true religious or socially sensitive works. The critique of modern science was dead on and the idea of religion being a lie, yet worth it for the qualitiy of life, is actually a great reflection of how I can sometimes view my own spirituality when I am in doubt. Not that I completely give in to my doubts, but that I am comforted by the idea that even if it all turns out false in the end, I am a better person because of my faith.

It is hard for me to reflect on a novel when I have so few criticisms, so I would say that how I feel about the book is completely communicated within the pages of Cat's Cradle. So if you are interested in how I summed up the book, you should just read it.

Candide

I recently read the short novel Candide by Voltaire. This was a unique story about the nature of mankind written by a very pessimistic philosopher. In the story the main character, Candide, goes through numerous ridiculous and depressing situations, losing friends and family and lovers along the way. All through these situations Candide believes that everything that happens is good and providential because that was what he was taught by his mentor. "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." is his and his mentor, Pangloss'es motto. By the end of the book each one of his friends is thought to have been killed by some tragic end, but then discovered to have survived whatever incident had befallen them. By the end of the novel everything seems to have turned out the way Candide had wanted it, but it is concluded with Candide being unhappy and unsatisfied with the perfect life of which he had dreamed.

The story was very comical and I enjoyed reading it, but I cannot claim to agree with Voltaire's position of the human condition. It seems in the end that he believes that life is just a series of unfortunate events that we were merely placed into and are expected to live through. Although Candide and his mentor are both unwavering optimists, by the end of the book you see that they are both fools that cannot be believed. Even Candide himself resigns that their motto that all is for the best is not truly the case in this or any other world.

Candide was written as a response to infamous "the problem of evil", and leaves the reader just as confused and indecisive as any college course on the subject would. My personal beliefs on this subject is that we don't see "evil" in it's proper form. Pain and death are not evil, they are natural. What we should be questioning is the nature of man and how we are the creator's of pain and suffering through selfishness and ignorance. This could be a world that doesn't have evil if all could realize that our purpose on life is to love one another.