Five for Personal Effort Most Intriguing Overview
December 28, 2009
Gunnar Sevelius, MD
This is actually three books in one, and I am not certain if the middle book is intended or not.
Book 1: Page 1-140 then pick up with pages 141-185
Book 2: G. K. Chesteron, What's Wrong with the World by Seven Treasures Publications, 2009
Book 3: 186-291 by the original author, How Each Pillar of History, Especially Religon, Serves the Other Eight, and the Golden Rule of Love
The index is terrible, which is a shame, because this is a very provocative book, but given the almost heroic individual effort that went into this, I cannot reduce it from five stars. Although there is no mention of Maslow and the pyramid of human needs, I embrace this book as a personal contribution to the mosaic of knowledge.
The Nine Pillars of Humanity are:
1) Food, Water, Air, and Energy
2) Secure Dwelling defined as a well-implemented building code and a home free from government intrusions with laws security the property from terrorists and mauraders
3) Cleanliness with hygiene in good and living environment
4) Art, in living space and time to enjoy it
5) Freedom to communicate
6) Freedom to form support groups for common goals
7) Freedom to choose a relgion (belief system) according to one's own conviction
8) Accesses to medical help
9) Free trade of what we produce for our own “Nine Pillar Needs”
Assuming the insertion of the middle book is a mistake and hoping the author was not overcharged by a false page count (this appears to be a self-published book, another reason I consider Amazon, for all its problems, to be a priceless global institution), the book does three things:
1) Establish the Nine Pillars
2) Review all the major civilizations since humanity became an entity, evaluating each in relation to the nine pillars.
3) Review all of the major religions in relation to the nine pillars.
The author concludes:
1) Food transport is the core technology over time, from tarp to ox-card to engines
2) Democratic governments do better than dogmatic governments at meeting the nine needs, and do not start wars
3) The Golden Rule is universal and works–it literally DOES create a prosperous world at peace
For those that have the time, I recommend the book be read very slowly, appreciating the synethesis the author has achieved as one moves from civilization to civilization, from religion to religion. This is a pretty amazing personal effort and contribution.
There are gems throughout the book, and I ended up deciding to read faster and not note all of them down, but here are a few:
1) PRIESTS (including rabbis and immams) invented religious EXCLUSION and consequently conflict among religions
2) Iran, Bahrein, and Azerbaijan are the three countries that are predominantly Shi'ite. Given that CIA did not bother to tell Bush-Cheney that Iraq was split between a minority of Sunnis in power and a majority of Shi'ites being repressed, I have to wonder if CIA has focused on Azerbaijan as the next proxy war.
3) Land “ownership” causes conflict, and is made worse by generational splits of land into smaller and smaller portions. I really am coming around to the view that the French have the right idea with 100 year leases but the land remains part of the commonwealth.
This is not a “normal” book, I list some below, but it is certainly a book I recommend.
Reflections on Evolutionary Activism: Essays, poems and prayers from an emerging field of sacred social change
The Tao of Democracy: Using co-intelligence to create a world that works for all
The Lessons of History
Modern Strategy
Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover))
The Leadership of Civilization Building: Administrative and civilization theory, Symbolic Dialogue, and Citizen Skills for the 21st Century
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
