The Human Condition (Song Of The Ancestors Book 2)

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This I do not deny! Masterpiece this book is not. It does not deliver what is promised! This book feels like the truth. I can't explain it. He talks about all sorts of topics that are really really really interesting and he just describes the world so well, what a mess it is all in, a mess we are all in! The chapters on childhood and nurturing and his 'love indoctrination' theory are jsut really fascinating and really impressed me. I'm doing lots of 'really reallys'!!. I felt impelled to writes a review because it just feels like a really! View all 5 comments. May 23, Anthony Clarke rated it it was amazing.

Imagine being able to truly understand and love yourself and those around you. Imagine having genuine hope for the future of humanity! You simply have to read this book for yourself! The End of the Human Condition" explores the traditional 'no-go-zone' of the subject of "the human condition" - humans' capacity for both good and evil - and fully explains it in layman's terms.

Griffith is able to go where nobody else has been able to go before The depth and breadth of the book's material is simply astounding: This book could be the most incredible, truly powerful, and transformative book you will ever read! In a nutshell, it solves almost all of the world's problems!

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This is no ordinary book. The End Of The Human Condition is the spectacular culmination of more than 40 years of researching and writing about the human condition, its effect on the psychological state of humanity and its relieving and transforming explanation. This is because FREEDOM presents the profound and comprehensive explanation of ALL the elemental questions that have baffled humanity — science in particular — surrounding our existence on this planet.

These, Griffith explains, are the major stalling points that science has heroically but fearfully tried to penetrate, but without the fundamental explanation of ourselves it has been a confounding and increasingly impossible task. The situation is very serious, the need for clarity urgent. It is in this arena that Griffith compassionately illustrates what the problem is — the human condition — and then goes about paragraph by soothing paragraph to outline the simple, logical, dignified, biologically-based explanation for this condition.

The psychological outlook on our lives is upturned and re-laid out in the most simple, rational and refreshingly original explanations. The answer lies in understanding the two million year old conflict between our instinctive, genetically orientated brain and our intelligent, nerve-based brain. It is explained that these necessary pioneering efforts of the newly emerged conscious mind, defied our already established instincts and caused the psychological conflict that has compounded over two million years resulting in the states of extreme psychosis and neurosis we see today.

We became angry, egocentric and alienated or in a word: More often than not, publications that attempt to explain elusive subjects like the human soul, religion and consciousness etc. Never before has there been such a totally symmetrical and holistic illustration of the problem facing the world and its compassionate solution. However, one hurdle remains for humanity before we can reach the ultimate fully-integrated, peaceful and reconciled state — the distressing question that is posed in the title of the book: Is humanity, and particularly our scientific establishment, too entrenched in our alienated human condition to adopt what is being explained?

Reading this book puts us squarely in the hot-seat of our species predicament. The outcome is up to us. Griffith uses a whole kitbag full of alternate, mainstream, left-field, right-field, popular cultured, philosophical, sceintific, biological, psychological thinking and theoretical application to achieve this book. The glowing introduction from a Canadian psychiatrist is interesting in its own right, but onto the book. Its big, long and with numourous concepts to attempt to explore. The idea that our origins are steeped in love, yes our very own real life Garden of Eden while surely appealing is Griffith uses a whole kitbag full of alternate, mainstream, left-field, right-field, popular cultured, philosophical, sceintific, biological, psychological thinking and theoretical application to achieve this book.

The idea that our origins are steeped in love, yes our very own real life Garden of Eden while surely appealing is increcibly difficult to accept and not one readily supported by maintstream science. This Griffith is upfront about and often shreds the bejezus from what he describes as 'mechanistic science'. So yeah, that's a brain starter for one.

His Love Indoctrination Hypothesis which is what actually gave rise to the peaceful society mentioned earlier is the real chestnut. The basis in it is so simple and logical that it does appear to have potential, despite that annoying 'genetic problem' But again Griffith counters that, and persuasivley. It is his elaborate dissection of our historical path to alienation that will create some uproar, let's just say he's hardly politcially correct and I'd like to see my sister and mother read the chapter on nurturing, but again I'll give it to Griffith that his arguments are debated very convincingly, if not conventionally.

If you genuinely want to understand human behaviour and make sense of the mess in the world - then read this book! Feb 17, Aussiescribbler Aussiescribbler rated it did not like it Shelves: Originally I was a supporter, even though I felt that his theories were flawed.

Over time my attitude changed. Now I look on it less as a first stab at a cure and more as a distillation of the disease itself. I have points of agreement with Griffith. I do believe that our problems as a species can be traced back to a pervasive sense of insecurity about our own worth. As our self-acceptance is undermined we become more embattled and more selfish. Idealism is one of the major things which undermines our self-acceptance. Griffith believes that it is innate.

He believes that we are born expecting ideal behaviour from others and that we have an instinctive demand for selfless behaviour from ourselves. I believe that idealism is essentially a thought virus, that it arose from our capacity for reason and took hold because we found it hard to argue against. On the surface it seems to make sense that, if we want a better society and want to be better people, the way to do so is to insist on high standards, to try to pursue better behaviour by an act of will and insist on it from others. The fact that this approach tends to undermine our self-acceptance and thus robs us of our capacity for such improved behaviour is not obvious.

This is comparable to obsessive compulsive disorder in which the peace of mind of the individual is conditional on certain strict requirements being met. So idealism can make us intolerant towards others and angry about what we feel are their imperfections. Our anger at our own apparent inability to meet the demands of idealism can be turned inwards in the form of depression, which in the extreme may lead to suicide, or it may be turned outward in the form of anger towards those who express or represent to us the ideals we feel unable to live up to.

I believe that this is why some people end up feeling compelled to inflict suffering on defenceless children. This is something he does not recommend we do. My view is that the situation is not this bleak. All we need is to learn to stop fighting with these hostile thoughts and feelings.

There is a huge difference between accepting them and acting on them. The less we accept them - the more we fight against them - the stronger they grow and the harder it may be to prevent ourselves from expressing them in our action in some way. If the world is to be saved it will have to take place through a decentralised process. This is not how living systems work.

This book is a Trojan Horse for the idealism virus. There is absolutely no need for us to be ideal, even if such a thing were possible. What matters is that we find a way to cooperate with each other enough to solve as many of our problems as we can solve. This will require us to become less selfish.

Selfishness is the natural self-directedness of the suffering individual. One of the things which may be causing us suffering is feeling guilty about being selfish. This is a negative feedback loop. What can break us out of this loop is to recognise that unconditional self-acceptance will make us less selfish, while trying to be less selfish will only increase the problem. Our behaviour can only ever be motivated by self-interest. If Griffith feels that not bringing his message to the world will lead to a situation which will make him feel bad and saving the world will make him feel good, then he is being motivated by self-interest.

There is nothing wrong with this. Self-interest is not selfishness. Selfishness is a form of pathological self-directedness. There is nothing wrong with self-interest. What matters is whether it is enlightened or unenlightened self-interest. Unenlightened self-interest will lead us to pig out on junk food because it gives us pleasure today, while enlightened self-interest would encourage us to eat a healthy diet because we are thus more likely to feel good tomorrow.

When we do something which appears to benefit ourselves at the expense of others, we compromise our own longer term interests. Griffith admits that his book is confronting. He believes that it is confronting because it is so truthful. I believe that it is confronting because it is so full of a particular kind of idealism. When we are in such a state, truth is not the only thing which will confront us. We may be confronted by anything which appears to be critical of us, whether it is rational or not. Look at how many people have experienced shame about masturbation, when there is no rational reason to view it as something harmful to ourselves or others.

So I was left with a challenge. I recognised that the problems of the world arose from a widespread condition of psychological insecurity which makes us more selfish.

Not only our happiness but our continued survival as a species depends on us finding a way to liberate ourselves from selfishness - to liberate our capacity for love. I expressed the essence of that vision in my book How to be Free by Joe Blow. The philosophy I outline there has worked for me and others have told me that it has worked for them. It is also very short, and, I think, pretty easy to understand.

I use the pseudonym Joe Blow as a way of de-emphasising myself, so that the ideas are assessed on the basis of their own intrinsic value or lack there of. I have no worldly authority anyway. May 24, Genevieve Salter rated it it was amazing. The End Of The Human Condition Jeremy Griffith, a biologist whose focus is solely on ending the suffering on Earth, brings everything he has to bear on the subject of the human condition and the result is a hand-held journey into the deepest, darkest, innermost part of your mind, and straight to your heart making sense of the bewildering chaos of life.

But as you read you will realise that all the things you thought were unexplainable, or were too painful to even think about, or were too controversial to navigate, or that you never really knew were there, are tackled in this book in a most complete way and with the promise of a free and exciting future for humanity.

Using a simple analogy Griffith explains this paradoxical situation and how it arose in our human ancestors two million years ago. He explains how the development of a conscious mind in the human species led to a clash between our instincts and this newly developed intelligence. Chapter 5 of FREEDOM documents the fossil evidence confirming his theory, including how we developed a conscious, thinking brain in the first place—all just fascinating stuff, especially his treatise on the cooperative and matriarchal bonobos.

But our darkness is undeniable with terrifying levels of depression in teenagers, rising levels of obesity, increasing unrest in the Middle East and indifference in the West, alarming rates of suicide, murder, paedophilia—no one can argue that we are setting ourselves up for a world of unbounding happiness in the future. Humans are the champions of the story of life on Earth. We are so, so wonderful! The world seems so silent about the depths of our sorrow. In fact, growing up, no one told me anything about how the world works and why there seemed to be so much unhappiness, why people fought with each other or were greedy or cruel, why sex and beauty was such a big deal etc etc, but this book does.

The concept of Resignation, as with so many concepts throughout FREEDOM, releases us all from our lonely, individual corners of a dark room and introduces us to the warm light of this truthful understanding. It IS like breaking free from an underground prison as Plato described it, his allegory being referred to often in the book. You should push past any initial scepticism or confrontation you may feel when reading as you will be rewarded with the precious jewel that FREEDOM is.

It can be a difficult journey but oh is it worth it, not just for you but for the human race and all of life. May 24, PJ rated it it was amazing. After reading 'Freedom' I know this: The terror, neurosis and horror in this world is about to subside, as this book delivers no less than the self-knowledge we humans have desperately needed at this critical point in time.

Looking around at the state of our planet, it is clear that the world is heaving under the pressure of all the problems we face - yet this book alone puts us squarely back on course to a promising future. Anyone conce After reading 'Freedom' I know this: Anyone concerned about the state of the world should have this book at the top of their reading list.

George Seaver page Jeremy Griffith's treatise on the human condition is precisely this and so much more. This far-reaching explanation starts right at the beginning at our biological origins, with the explanation of our 'human condition' presented via an incredibly simple, yet powerful analogy followed by pages of truthful insights, providing a complete understanding of ourselves and our world.

I was walking to work the other day after reading 'Freedom' and it occurred to me how secure I was in the knowledge that our moral instincts are genuine, that we did come from an original state of cooperativeness see Chapter 5 and even though we currently are immensely destructive and damaged, that was necessary and can change now. There's a plethora of books that talk of peace of mind, but nothing compares to this ability now to 'know' and the peace of mind that gives you.

There is a particularly moving description on page 50 regarding how humans have been waiting for this moment, and on page regarding an honest passage from Catcher in the Rye. It's impossible to describe the level of empathy the author has for humans in his writing and how intuitively it rings true - I strongly encourage you to experience it for yourself.

A quote I came across recently keeps coming to mind: I believe it has and it's 'Freedom' Mar 29, Michael Jones rated it it was amazing Shelves: There are all sorts of philosophy books out there that try and explain the human condition, or at least how to live with it. History is full of them. Lately some scientists have tried to get in on the act, arguing that everything can be reduced down to our genes. Think Dawkins and E.

I have read them all, well a lot of them anyway. Some are just epic fails. Some are awesome, but not because they explain everything, but because they tell you how to live with it all. And then there is th There are all sorts of philosophy books out there that try and explain the human condition, or at least how to live with it.

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And then there is this book. This is the only book I have ever read that categorically gets to the bottom of it all. It scientifically explains the human condition, and with that explained, all the questions about our behavior just unlock before your eyes. I don't care what question you have, this book will answer it. This book can stop all the suffering on this planet — in you and me and in the world — it is the profound explanation of our human predicament — the confronting truth — but the answers that finally dignify humans and liberate us.

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May 24, Monica Kodet rated it it was amazing. The psychological maturation of the human race is on! This book answers with fascinating, head on, undeniable rigour all the obvious but impossible questions about human life, you know the ones you hope your children won't ask but do Where do humans come from? Why do people kill each other? What is the meaning of life? Why doesn't Daddy love me? Profound, honest thinkers throughout history are very present and at home in this book. The scale of it is mind-blowing.

Freedom: The End of the Human Condition

Jeremy Griffith The psychological maturation of the human race is on! Jeremy Griffith explains the whole picture of humanity's journey from ignorance to enlightenment in biological, evolutionary terms. Central to it all is this issue of the 'human condition'— how the development of our conscious brain which needs to explore and understand the world created an internal 'war' with the instinctive part of ourselves which expects love and cooperation our conscience , and how our inability to understand what was happening inside us left us with underlying sense of guilt, distress and fear about who we are.

Are we good or are we bad? A universal psychosis or condition that has compounded over millions of years and caused all the anger, suffering and destruction that we have had to 'block out' in order to survive and cope. Until we could satisfy our conscious brain and fully understand this fundamental dilemma and the very good reason for our 'dark side', humanity has been stalled, 'locked in a race between self destruction and self discovery'.

To claim the end of the human condition should of course trigger scepticism but at the end of the day it either makes sense or it dosen't. There is loads of evidence backing Griffith's central idea which is actually very simple, but the most powerful evidence for me lies in it's ability to unlock and makes sense of everything around and in me, and to honestly but compassionately address the screaming obvious issue of 'us' and how messed up we have become.

Our world is in crisis because we are in crisis and no-one is talking about that on a real level. Isn't 'that's just the way we are' avoidance of the whole issue? Is our conscious brain capable of putting man on the moon but incapable of explaining and dealing with ourselves? The logical, refreshing and transforming news this book presents is that our condition is not genetic, but psychological and can be overcome.

As Canadian Psychiatrist Professor Prosen says 'Jeremy Griffith's biological explanation of the human condition is the holy grail of insight we have sought for the psychological rehabilitation of the human race'. Its honesty can be immensely challenging but powerfully relieving at the same time. How can something that deals profoundly with who we are and the seriousness of our situation not be? Without concrete evidence for our fundamental goodness, we haven't been able to face ourselves but with this knowledge the human race can finally move on. These explanations bring the ultimate love to humans and the ability to love our dark side changes everything!

Like no other text from Chinese antiquity, the Songs were cherished, and hence survived, in two parallel traditions: Remarkably, no ancient source ever shows us the Airs as innocent folk poetry. In that tradition, each line could have multiple meanings.

Its poetry, as opposed to the Western tradition, was largely anonymous and apparently simple. Yet beneath the surface, the poems are multi-layered. To this day, the Songs — and especially the Airs — are speaking in multiple voices. In delightful ambiguity, they have survived every attempt to be reduced, and hence diminished, to a single message or meaning. Listen to what the Confucius of the Analects had to say about them: It was always about something else: A poll of writers and critics, Stories that Shaped the World , was announced in May.

Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors is a saga that describes the true essence of humanity. The book urges the reader to go for an exploration, seeking a new outlook on the world around him. It is an essential integration of scientific insights about who we are and what our future might possibly be. The book, best described as a humanist bible, is a daring revelation that takes the reader to his past and the underlying principles behind his existence.

The authors have used a simple style of writing to discuss everything right from the origin of the sun and planets to the first signs of life on earth. Every effort has been made to provide a valid, scientific reason behind the existence of human race. Starting from the big bang explosion, the authors trace the cell formation and the subsequent evolution of multicellular organisms.

This Ballantine Books ed edition is available as paperback. Widely acclaimed all over, the book is an international bestseller. The chapters from this book, such as Lives of the Apes, The Ocean of Becoming, and What is Human, laid the foundation for many researches. Carl Sagan's reputation is truly awesome in the old sense of the word , and his writing is terrific.

His wife, Ann Druyan, collaborated with him on many projects. Sagan made an immediate connection with a lot of people -- his books are written in such accessible language and with so much wit and intelligence that they have changed not only the way we look at science but also the way we look at life. This book especially touched many people's lives -- mine included. Krijgsman Associate Managing Editor. Absorbing and elegantly written, it tells of theorigins of life on earth, describes its variety and charaacter, and culminates in a discussion of human nature and teh complex traces ofhumankind's evolutionary past It is an amazing story masterfully told.

It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits--self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics--are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App.

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