Michael Crichton: State of fear

anartist

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
I don't know how many have read any of Michael Crichtons books, but many have probably seen the movies "Andromeda Strain" or "The Terminal Man" or "Jurassic Park" or watched the TV show "ER". He is what I would call a science fiction writer. A fiction writer with a science background(according to Wikipedia a biological anthropologist and a MD)who writes about scientific topics.
What makes this book worth mentioning are two things:

1. this book is about climate change.
Crichton provides links to various web sites in Appendix II. A sample is: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/data/update/gistemp/station_data/
One thesis provided is that human caused climate change is not on. It seems he acknowledges that climate change is happening and is part of our history. which is interesting considering the changes to our planet (weakening magnetic field, slowed rotation, pole movement, volcanic activity, earthquakes, etc) and other planets in the solar system.
To quote from the book (p563) Kenner:"...for the last 700,000 years, our planet has been in a geological ice age, characterized by advancing and retreating glacial ice. No one is entirely sure why, but ice now covers the planet every 100,000 years, with smaller advances every 20,000 or so. The last advance was 20,000 years ago, so we are due for the next one."
The title of Appendix I may be of interest: "Why Politicized Science is dangerous" which begins by talking about Eugenics. He doesn't reference present day examples such as 'climate deniers' losing their jobs, the murder of scientists, etc. but he is aware of the problem in a mainstream sort of way.

2. State of fear
The title of the book! A passage to illustrate (p454)
Prof. Hoffman:"...To the requirement of every sovereign state to exert control over the behavior of its citizens, to keep them orderly and reasonably docile... of course we know that social control is best managed through fear." "...For fifty years, Western nations had maintained their citizens in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace.... The fall of the Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear."
Evans frowned. "You're saying the environmental crisis took the place of the Cold War?"
"That is what the evidence shows. Of course, now we have radical fundamentalism and post-9/11 terrorism to make us afraid,..."
It seems Mr Crichton is suggesting that the fear many people are experiencing is a manufactured fear.

Mr Crichton also presents an extensive (21 page) bibliography (not as extensive as Laura's tend to be though!) which is illuminating.
Hopefully I'll find the time to read some of them (he points out that many of those mentioned in his bibliography do not agree with the thesis of his novel)
A few sources picked at random:
"Abrupt Climate Change", National Research Council, National Academy Press, 2002
"Urban bias in temperature time series-a case study for the city of Vienna, Austria." Climatic Change 38 (1998) 113-128
"The little ice age: How climate made history 1300-1850" Brian Fagan. New York, Basic books, 2000
"The environmental pendulum" R. Allen Freeze. Berkeley. U of California Press, 2000.

So this book is an interesting "story", for me at least because it includes some decent science. As a novel perhaps it flies under the radar, and control, of the thought police in academia.
 
I read a few of his novels, some good some not so good. He was a decent film director too actually.

Going to have to check this book out. Too bad he passed away, he always had good ideas. His film "Looker" was extremely prophetic in terms of what's happening now in technology, and when he wrote Jurassic Park it was science fiction, but today we're trying to clone extinct animals from preserved DNA. Scary stuff.
 
I read the book lately. It is not bad. He denounces all the lies about global warming. I like him as a writer, when he tries to make us understand some issues, not when his characters are in the middle of adventures style Hollywood. ;) Andromeda Strain is my favorite.
 
ken macdonald said:
I don't know how many have read any of Michael Crichtons books, but many have probably seen the movies "Andromeda Strain" or "The Terminal Man" or "Jurassic Park" or watched the TV show "ER". He is what I would call a science fiction writer. A fiction writer with a science background(according to Wikipedia a biological anthropologist and a MD)who writes about scientific topics.
What makes this book worth mentioning are two things:

1. this book is about climate change.
Crichton provides links to various web sites in Appendix II. A sample is: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/data/update/gistemp/station_data/
One thesis provided is that human caused climate change is not on. It seems he acknowledges that climate change is happening and is part of our history. which is interesting considering the changes to our planet (weakening magnetic field, slowed rotation, pole movement, volcanic activity, earthquakes, etc) and other planets in the solar system.
To quote from the book (p563) Kenner:"...for the last 700,000 years, our planet has been in a geological ice age, characterized by advancing and retreating glacial ice. No one is entirely sure why, but ice now covers the planet every 100,000 years, with smaller advances every 20,000 or so. The last advance was 20,000 years ago, so we are due for the next one."
The title of Appendix I may be of interest: "Why Politicized Science is dangerous" which begins by talking about Eugenics. He doesn't reference present day examples such as 'climate deniers' losing their jobs, the murder of scientists, etc. but he is aware of the problem in a mainstream sort of way.

2. State of fear
The title of the book! A passage to illustrate (p454)
Prof. Hoffman:"...To the requirement of every sovereign state to exert control over the behavior of its citizens, to keep them orderly and reasonably docile... of course we know that social control is best managed through fear." "...For fifty years, Western nations had maintained their citizens in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace.... The fall of the Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear."
Evans frowned. "You're saying the environmental crisis took the place of the Cold War?"
"That is what the evidence shows. Of course, now we have radical fundamentalism and post-9/11 terrorism to make us afraid,..."
It seems Mr Crichton is suggesting that the fear many people are experiencing is a manufactured fear.

Mr Crichton also presents an extensive (21 page) bibliography (not as extensive as Laura's tend to be though!) which is illuminating.
Hopefully I'll find the time to read some of them (he points out that many of those mentioned in his bibliography do not agree with the thesis of his novel)
A few sources picked at random:
"Abrupt Climate Change", National Research Council, National Academy Press, 2002
"Urban bias in temperature time series-a case study for the city of Vienna, Austria." Climatic Change 38 (1998) 113-128
"The little ice age: How climate made history 1300-1850" Brian Fagan. New York, Basic books, 2000
"The environmental pendulum" R. Allen Freeze. Berkeley. U of California Press, 2000.

So this book is an interesting "story", for me at least because it includes some decent science. As a novel perhaps it flies under the radar, and control, of the thought police in academia.

Thanks for the hint.
I have been reading "Expedition Kongo" - which is an excellent and thrilling book about the way global companies act etc.
I read it 3 or 4 times. He really has been a good writer - sorry to hear that he passed away.
 
I have been reading the book now - really interesting his stories!
I will use it for people who still believe in global warming. It makes it easy to understand . . .
 
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