State of Fear
by Michael Crichton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael CrichtonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-28
ISBN: 0061782661
Number of pages: 816
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of State of Fear
Book Review: Great Book about the dangers of using "science" in service of propaganda
Summary: 5 Stars
It's startling to realize how easy most people just accept what the media and politicians push on them for their own purposes of control through taxation for cronies, moral suasion and outright lies. We have this in many forms but the most prominent nowadays is global warming. I have a natural aversion to the GW/enviros simply because I've always had the instinct that it's only self-hatred in a larger form: species hatred. Get rid of man and the enviros would love it.
Crichton mentions as well that the supposedly objective scientific journals all overstep their roles in overtly supporting GW. This is basically for more funding from the likes of Soros and other lefty's and this is also why so many working scientists allow their research and their opinions be biased: grants and other funding. He mentions that retired professors are usually the most honest simply because they no longer have to chase the money.
This is not about the Earth's health, the Earth has been through MUCH worse than a 2 degree warming in it's history, this is about animals, primarily about mankind, as plants NEED CO2 to live and thrive. We are all polluters simply because we exhale CO2 and that is a crime against nature to the lefty lunatics.
Ever notice that the hard "science" always changes with the POLITICAL winds? I think many forget to mention Crichton's two essays at the end of this thriller fully laying out his position, which acknowledges that there is probably global warming happening but that it is vastly a natural variation with mostly minor contributions by mankind's industry. Crichton mentions wryly that the people in 2100 will be just fine without our help.
Crichton's major point is that we know very little about many things, and the weather is one of those things and to project for 100+ years on the data we have and then make policy decisions about it is not rational and points to manipulation for power, ever notice that Al Gore is such a star simply because he is an ideologue for GW? Regulating everyone elses life seems to be the goal of lefty lunatics in San Francisco, Manhattan and Hollywood, lawyers and the Obama media are their way of achieving it: it's working sadly.
Wow we now have a superstar American Idol in the White House with unions, trial lawyers, enviros, hollywood and the media all on board and waiting for their payback in service of their hero. Let's see unionized industries like air, cars, shipping, teaching and others are doing so well as far as performance, at least as a meal ticket for their voting drones. Let's see lawyers ALWAYS do well and the 1984 doublespeak we get from the administration is typical lawyer talk. Now I'm sure that the drones out there will argue in favor of their beloved Barack, a single term congressman from the clean as a whistle Chicago political machine that also produced Blago, but what else is there other than his skin color, catchy name, Harvard Law degree, anti-American pastor and cool factor? We see a vacuous mirror that wants "fairness" in all things, even nature and is willing to bully anyone with his legions of drones to get it as we see everyday.
Also Crichton's second essay about the Eugenics movement that was supported by many intellectuals, scientists and politicians in America and then in Germany in the early 20th century is prescient and is a fore runner to the GW propagandists of now. Of course after WW2 no one supposedly ever supported it or even knew what eugenics was, conveniently. This essay is called "Why Politicized Science is Dangerous" and should be required reading in school.
As an engineer myself I understand that we have only very limited abilities to predict the future and I don't believe any politician or anyone else should be able to make sweeping policy on current data that runs more than a single presidents possible terms, 8 years should be the max prediction time that can be manipulated for political purposes. GW abatement does not work if only selected countries do it, so abatement is just hurting those who do it and not really helping anyone other than politicians, ideologues and others in service of a system of power.
It is no surprise that it gets a negative rating from those wizards in the NYT and other lefty news media, it interferes with their agenda. How does a paper smear John MCcain during the presidential race with a false story about an affair yet miss the lovely John Edwards affair? Oh, conveniently one is not in the correct political party for the New York Times. In fact no left wing media even noticed it, it took a tabloid to actually get the story, makes you wonder what else the left wing media miss about even our Dear Leader Barack and his lieutenants.
Summary of State of Fear
In Tokyo, in Los Angeles, in Antarctica, in the Solomon Islands . . . an intelligence agent races to put all the pieces together to prevent a global catastrophe.
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
A Michael Crichton Timeline Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
Amazon.com reveals a few facts about the "father of the techno-thriller."
1942: John Michael Crichton is born in Chicago, Illinois on Oct. 23.
1960: Crichton graduates from Roslyn High School on Long Island, New York, with high marks and a reputation as a star basketball player. He decides to attend Harvard University to study English. During his studies, he rankles under his writing professors' criticism. As an act of rebellion, Crichton submits an essay by George Orwell as his own. The professor doesn?t catch the plagiarism and gives Orwell a B-. This experience convinces Crichton to change his field of study to anthropology.
1964: Crichton graduates summa cum laude from Harvard University in anthropology. After studying further as a visiting lecturer at Cambridge University and receiving the Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellowship, which allowed him to travel in Europe and North Africa, Crichton begins coursework at the Harvard School of Medicine. To help fund his medical endeavors, he writes spy thrillers under several pen names. One of these works, A Case of Need, wins the 1968 Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award.
1969: Crichton graduates from Harvard Medical school and is accepted as a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Science in La Jolla, Calif. However, his career in medicine is waylaid by the publication of the first novel under his own name, The Andromeda Strain. The novel, about an apocalyptic plague, climbs high on bestseller lists and is later made into a popular film. Crichton said of his decision to pursue writing full time: "To quit medicine to become a writer struck most people like quitting the Supreme Court to become a bail bondsman."
1972: Crichton's second novel under his own name The Terminal Man, is published. Also, two of Crichton's previous works under his pen names, Dealing and A Case of Need are made into movies. After watching the filming, Crichton decides to try his hand at directing. He will eventually direct seven films including the 1973 science-fiction hit Westworld, which was the first film ever to use computer-generated effects.
1980: Crichton draws on his anthropology background and fascination with new technology to create Congo, a best-selling novel about a search for industrial diamonds and a new race of gorillas. The novel, patterned after the adventure writings of H. Ryder Haggard, updates the genre with the inclusion of high-tech gadgets that, although may seem quaint 20 years later, serve to set Crichton's work apart and he begins to cement his reputation as "the father of the techno-thriller."
1990: After the 1980s, which saw the publication of the underwater adventure Sphere (1987) and an invitation to become a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988), Crichton begins the new decade with a bang via the publication of his most popular novel, Jurassic Park. The book is a powerful example of Crichton's use of science and technology as the bedrock for his work. Heady discussion of genetic engineering, chaos theory, and paleontology run throughout the tightly-wound thriller that strands a crew of scientists on an island populated by cloned dinosaurs run amok. The novel inspires the 1993 Steven Spielberg film, and together book and film will re-ignite the world?s fascination with dinosaurs.
1995: Crichton resurrects an idea from his medical school days to create the Emmy-Award Winning television series ER. In this year, ER won eight Emmys and Crichton received an award from the Producers Guild of America in the category of outstanding multi-episodic series. Set in an insanely busy an often dangerous Chicago emergency room, the fast-paced drama is defined by Crichton's now trademark use of technical expertise and insider jargon. The year also saw the publication of The Lost World returning readers to the dinosaur-infested island.
2000: In recognition for Crichton's contribution in popularizing paleontology, a dinosaur discovered in southern China is named after him. "Crichton's ankylosaur" is a small, armored plant-eating dinosaur that dates to the early Jurassic Period, about 180 million years ago. "For a person like me, this is much better than an Academy Award," Crichton said of the honor.
2004: Crichton?s newest thriller State of Fear is published.
Amazon.com's Significant Seven
Michael Crichton kindly agreed to take the life quiz we like to give to all our authors: the Amazon.com Significant Seven.
A: Prisoners of Childhood by Alice Miller
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Witter Bynner version)
Symphony #2 in D Major by Johannes Brahms (Georg Solti)
Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: Surely you're joking.
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: Small room. Shades down. No daylight. No disturbances. Macintosh with a big screen. Plenty of coffee. Quiet.
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I don't want an epitaph. If forced, I would say "Why Are You Here? Go Live Your Life."
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: Benjamin Franklin
Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be?
A: Invisibility
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