Title: Freedom
Author: Jeremy Griffith
Author’s website:
http://www.worldtransformation.com/freedom/
Genre/category: Science/Philosophy
ISBN: 978-1-74129-008-0
A book for our
time
Confrontation and compassion, exposed and liberated,
discomfort and defensiveness, explained and understood, shock and excitement.
These are the range of emotions I encountered reading Australian biologist
Jeremy Griffith’s latest work, ‘Freedom’ – a book for our time with deep
significance for all humans. It is the zenith of Griffiths 30 years spent
studying, unravelling and explaining the human condition.
As early as the fourth paragraph Griffith
gives context to and insight into the realm being explored - a realm few have
dared penetrate. It reads, ‘To briefly explain what the human condition is, it
arises from our species’ capacity for what has been called ‘good and evil’.
Humans are capable of great kindness, empathy and love, but we are also capable
of horrific atrocities like rape, murder and torture. Our human predicament or
‘condition’ has been that because we have never before been able to explain and
thus understand where our species’ capacity for acts of shocking inhumanity
comes from we each carry a deep, now almost subconscious, insecurity and sense
of guilt about our value and worth as humans. Are we good or are we bad? Even in
our everyday behaviour, why are we humans competitive, aggressive and selfish
when clearly the ideals are to be the complete opposite, namely cooperative,
loving and selfless?’
‘Freedom’ is our story, both as a species and as
individuals told in first principle biology, truthfully, compassionately and
comprehensively. It may leave you in a state of initial shock and awe; such is
the nature of the subject matter and the power of the explanation being
presented.
However these works cannot be dismissed. The importance of
the claims and the implications for our future warrant full consideration and
debate as Professor Harry Prosen, former President of the Canadian Psychiatric
Association stated, ‘I have no doubt this biological explanation of Jeremy
Griffith’s of the human condition is the holy grail of insight we have sought
for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race. I cannot urge you
strongly enough to listen to what Jeremy Griffith has to explain’.
Griffith’s vitae is impressive. Raised in rural New South
Wales, Australia, Griffith- a biologist began writing about the human condition
in 1975. Since then he has written six books, including the 2003 Australasian
bestseller, the revealingly titled ‘A Species in Denial’. ‘Freedom’ the subject
of this review, is Griffith’s definitive work, his comprehensive and complete
treatise on the biological explanation and amelioration of the
human condition. It was first published as an e book in 2009 with
extensive additions and editing in 2012.
‘Freedoms’’ timeliness and significance cannot be
underestimated. As Australian journalist Richard Neville ominously and
accurately described the state of the world, ‘The world is hurtling to
catastrophe: from nuclear horrors, a wrecked ecosystem, 20 million dead each
year from malnutrition, 600 million chronically hungry…All these crises are
man-made, their causes are psychological. The cures must come from this same
source; which means the planet needs psychological maturity…fast. We are locked
in a race between self - destruction and self-discovery’. (Good Weekend
Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Oct 1986).
We live in a world with levels of anger, desperation and
despair not seen before; where greed is endemic and the gap between the have and
the have nots has never been wider, a world where religious wars rage, where
the left and right wing in politics seem irreconcilably polarised, where the
nightly news is too horrific to watch, where children as young as seven are
being prescribed ADHD drugs and where new age movements, band aid solutions and
‘causes’ have become rife, proclaiming to save the environment, save your soul
or save the world.
For all of our species collective achievements in science,
religion, philosophy and psychiatry in their endeavour to understand and explain
our world and the polarities of life - good and evil, love and war, science and
religion, men and women, left wing and right wing, instinct and intellect,
socialism and capitalism our destructive..., the stark reality is we are still
‘locked in a race between self - destruction and self-discovery’.
The world is in desperate need for unifying and real
answers and solutions to the underlying cause of these problems we face.
From this seemingly hopeless and despairing path to
‘self-destruction’, ‘Freedom’ presents this long sought after and desperately
needed ‘self-discovery’. It presents the complete solution to real ‘peace on
earth’ – through full biological explanation and understanding of our human
condition that leads to the amelioration of that condition.
‘Freedom’ is broken into a number of sequential and easy
to navigate parts taking the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery and
enlightenment. Its explanatory power, grounded in first principle biology leads
the reader through the psychological maturation of humanity, both collectively
and individually. To try and summarise the close to 1000 pages in this short
review can in no way do justice to the content but what I will say is that the
profound questions such as what is the meaning of life, how we acquired our
conscience or ‘moral soul’, the development of consciousness and the origins of
the human condition are completely explained. Explained compassionately in a way
that will deeply resonate with you about what it is to be human. Equally
significant are the transforming implications addressed by Griffith in
subsequent sections. The ability to now understand our human condition, in
particular the dark side of our nature, liberates us from our underlying
insecurity and sense of guilt, relieving and healing our condition, which ends
the cycle of destruction plaguing our planet, transforming our world as we know
it.
There are a handful of books that have withstood history’s
litmus test – literary works that strike a deep chord in our psyche and
transcend our day to day lives. They cut a swathe through life’s clutter and
become timeless through generations by enlightening us, adding meaning to and
explaining the world we live in and who we are. They leave a lasting imprint on
the reader. Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection’, the ‘Bible’, Plato’s ‘Republic’ and the ‘Iliad’ attributed to
Homer have all contributed to humanity’s knowledge bank.
In time ‘Freedom’ will not only stand alongside these
literary monuments, it will have such a profound and transformative effect on
humanity that its importance will be unsurpassed. This claim may sound
preposterous, however it is only upon reading ‘Freedom’ that you are able to
comprehend and experience the depth of truth that Jeremy Griffith has explained
about our human condition.
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