The Lucifer Principle
Encyclopedia
The Lucifer Principle is a book by Howard Bloom
. It sees a social group, not an individual, as a main subject of human evolution. It "explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture" and argues that "evil is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric". It sees selection (i.e. through violent competition) as central to the creation of the 'superorganism
' of society and the inevitable 'pecking orders
' and hierarchies inherent in human social groups, and proposes group selection
as main factor of human societal and cultural development.
The book proposes as the mechanism for human cultural development the selection of specific psychological
traits in a given population to support the culture it develops, as well as some universal traits supportive of the humans' nature as a social animal, necessary for the formation and maintenance of social groups instinctively formed by humans, and of cultures developed by these societies, through propagation and replication of meme
s. It also sees ever enlarging human societies with their specific cultures compete throughout history in violent competition and war. It claims the selection processes manifesting themselves as Evil
from an individual's point of view.
Reviews of the book saw it as 'ambitious' and 'disturbing' in its conclusions that societies based on individual freedom might succumb to systems such as communism or Islamic fundamentalism. The Washington Post said that "Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human condition... He draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly fields...and meticulously supports every bit of information...." while Chet Raymo in the Boston Globe termed it "a string of rhetorical firecrackers that challenge our many forms of self-righteousness."
Bloom later wrote that he and his publisher had been threatened by Islamic groups who objected to aspects of the book. He claimed that "Arab pressure groups asked ever so politely that The Lucifer Principle be withdrawn from print and that nothing that I write be published again. They offered to boycott my publisher's products — all of them — worldwide. And they backed their warning with a call for my punishment in seventeen Islamic countries." Bloom states that the Attorney for the Authors Guild wrote to his publishers, warning of an author boycott if the book was pulled from the shelves. The publishers asked Bloom to rewrite a chapter on Islamic violence, which led to the creation of 358 lines of footnotes attesting to the facts he presented within it.
Howard Bloom
Howard Bloom is an American author. He was a publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for singers and bands such as Prince, Billy Joel, and Styx. In 1988 he became disabled with chronic fatigue syndrome...
. It sees a social group, not an individual, as a main subject of human evolution. It "explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture" and argues that "evil is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric". It sees selection (i.e. through violent competition) as central to the creation of the 'superorganism
Superorganism
A superorganism is an organism consisting of many organisms. This is usually meant to be a social unit of eusocial animals, where division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods of time. Ants are the best-known example of...
' of society and the inevitable 'pecking orders
Pecking order
Pecking order or just peck order is the colloquial term for a hierarchical system of social organization in chickens. It was first described from the behaviour of poultry by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 under the German terms Hackordnung or Hackliste' ...
' and hierarchies inherent in human social groups, and proposes group selection
Group selection
In evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the alleles' effect on the fitness of individuals within that group....
as main factor of human societal and cultural development.
The book proposes as the mechanism for human cultural development the selection of specific psychological
Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...
traits in a given population to support the culture it develops, as well as some universal traits supportive of the humans' nature as a social animal, necessary for the formation and maintenance of social groups instinctively formed by humans, and of cultures developed by these societies, through propagation and replication of meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s. It also sees ever enlarging human societies with their specific cultures compete throughout history in violent competition and war. It claims the selection processes manifesting themselves as Evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
from an individual's point of view.
Reviews of the book saw it as 'ambitious' and 'disturbing' in its conclusions that societies based on individual freedom might succumb to systems such as communism or Islamic fundamentalism. The Washington Post said that "Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human condition... He draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly fields...and meticulously supports every bit of information...." while Chet Raymo in the Boston Globe termed it "a string of rhetorical firecrackers that challenge our many forms of self-righteousness."
Bloom later wrote that he and his publisher had been threatened by Islamic groups who objected to aspects of the book. He claimed that "Arab pressure groups asked ever so politely that The Lucifer Principle be withdrawn from print and that nothing that I write be published again. They offered to boycott my publisher's products — all of them — worldwide. And they backed their warning with a call for my punishment in seventeen Islamic countries." Bloom states that the Attorney for the Authors Guild wrote to his publishers, warning of an author boycott if the book was pulled from the shelves. The publishers asked Bloom to rewrite a chapter on Islamic violence, which led to the creation of 358 lines of footnotes attesting to the facts he presented within it.