Review by LoneWolfEkb -- Mythic Worlds and the One You C...
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- Latest Review: Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In by Harold Toliver
Review by LoneWolfEkb -- Mythic Worlds and the One You C...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In" by Harold Toliver.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Harold Toliver's Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In is a rather meandering, rumbling "history of ideas"-type tract against supernatural and quasi-supernatural illusions which affect people. The book traces the history - beginning from ancient Mesopotamia - and the prevalence of illusions and lies in our lives, especially in politics.
Against violence-justifying religious myths, the author proposes natural history, with its use of evidence, as a corrective. Pages and pages are dedicated to examples of various propagandists' political partisanship, demagoguery and religious bigotry resulting in wars and suffering - from Xerxes to the George W. Bush. The author concedes in the beginning that myths can be constructive, citing genuine achievements of historical empires, and concludes that myths and fictions - whether religious or political - should be recognized as such - the illusions should be recognized as illusions. Only when recognized as such - as in poetry - they can truly be useful.
While I agree with the author when he speaks against supernaturalism and ultra-skepticism, I find his style to be rather plodding. It seems to hover somewhere within genuine insight, but ends, ultimately, in rather banal truths like "loyalty and devotion to a cause become bad when they lead to ethnic cleansing" or "don't confuse illusions with reality". Other popular "history of ideas" authors, like Yuval Noah Harari, manage to make their points less banal and with less verbosity.
Occasionally, in the author's long-winded prose (that includes things like a fairly detailed retelling of Paradise Lost), some genuine insights can be found. I liked the observation that Victorian scientists, disturbed by humanity's ape-like ancestors, should've been instead impressed by ape intelligence and dexterity, or that early empiricists like Bacon couldn't foresee the threat that natural science would pose to absolute monarchy and aristocracy. There are perhaps around ten such insights spread over the whole book.
The book is at its weakest when it comes to political (secular) illusions. Not much practical advice is given on how to combat them. The author urges meticulously following the evidence, but this advice strikes me as too trivial - is there anyone who thinks that we should, in fact, discard all evidence? His preaching of compromise is too glib when it comes to US Civil War, where his opinion is that the North should've let the South to secede peacefully, since slavery would've ended on its own, anyway. While this line of argument could appeal to the white Northerners, he doesn't appear to have any advice for enslaved people and their abolitionist advocates. He dismisses both Adam Smith and Marx in a couple of pages - quite an unfair reaction to these thinkers, in my opinion. Toliver steers too close to misguided empiricism when he claims that natural history can be an antidote to bad politics.
Verdict: 2/4 stars, one star for some genuine insights, one for the author's sympathetic disgust towards political and religious violence. Would be of some interest to academic types.
******
Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In
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2 out of 4 stars
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Harold Toliver's Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In is a rather meandering, rumbling "history of ideas"-type tract against supernatural and quasi-supernatural illusions which affect people. The book traces the history - beginning from ancient Mesopotamia - and the prevalence of illusions and lies in our lives, especially in politics.
Against violence-justifying religious myths, the author proposes natural history, with its use of evidence, as a corrective. Pages and pages are dedicated to examples of various propagandists' political partisanship, demagoguery and religious bigotry resulting in wars and suffering - from Xerxes to the George W. Bush. The author concedes in the beginning that myths can be constructive, citing genuine achievements of historical empires, and concludes that myths and fictions - whether religious or political - should be recognized as such - the illusions should be recognized as illusions. Only when recognized as such - as in poetry - they can truly be useful.
While I agree with the author when he speaks against supernaturalism and ultra-skepticism, I find his style to be rather plodding. It seems to hover somewhere within genuine insight, but ends, ultimately, in rather banal truths like "loyalty and devotion to a cause become bad when they lead to ethnic cleansing" or "don't confuse illusions with reality". Other popular "history of ideas" authors, like Yuval Noah Harari, manage to make their points less banal and with less verbosity.
Occasionally, in the author's long-winded prose (that includes things like a fairly detailed retelling of Paradise Lost), some genuine insights can be found. I liked the observation that Victorian scientists, disturbed by humanity's ape-like ancestors, should've been instead impressed by ape intelligence and dexterity, or that early empiricists like Bacon couldn't foresee the threat that natural science would pose to absolute monarchy and aristocracy. There are perhaps around ten such insights spread over the whole book.
The book is at its weakest when it comes to political (secular) illusions. Not much practical advice is given on how to combat them. The author urges meticulously following the evidence, but this advice strikes me as too trivial - is there anyone who thinks that we should, in fact, discard all evidence? His preaching of compromise is too glib when it comes to US Civil War, where his opinion is that the North should've let the South to secede peacefully, since slavery would've ended on its own, anyway. While this line of argument could appeal to the white Northerners, he doesn't appear to have any advice for enslaved people and their abolitionist advocates. He dismisses both Adam Smith and Marx in a couple of pages - quite an unfair reaction to these thinkers, in my opinion. Toliver steers too close to misguided empiricism when he claims that natural history can be an antidote to bad politics.
Verdict: 2/4 stars, one star for some genuine insights, one for the author's sympathetic disgust towards political and religious violence. Would be of some interest to academic types.
******
Mythic Worlds and the One You Can Believe In
View: on Bookshelves
