Impressive! The book deserves all the five stars I gave. It's a small text that I had heard of many times before actually reading (it turned out it is not an easy book to find in English). I was lucky to get it from a close friend, whose friend gave it to him long time ago, while this friend of my friend had received it from a relative, who found it one god knows where. This probably exaggerated my excitement about reading it a little more than it'd do otherwise. However, I certainly do not think that everyone would understand the purpose of the proposition on those two hundred pages or so.
At first, it starts with an exposition of what is wrong with the situation we live in, introduces a stylized view of the current state of the world, and more specifically defines a concept of THE "Machine" which in other ideologies is also referred to as THE "System". I'm not trying to mock this in any serious way, I am just overwhelmed by the use of those two terms, concepts, bugs, sicknesses or call it whatever you wish.
While reading the book I took notes of my thoughts and opinions concerning the text. I didn't pay too much attention to them on the spot, just notes. After I was finished reading and looked at them, every line of my notebook consisted of at least two question marks. What this?, but what if?, What happens to..?, Isn't it bad to assume that bla bla bla?. What is the reason for those question marks? They are another proof of the questioning nature of our minds (ha-ha I'm not trying to put myself next to real skeptics like Voltair). I believe skepticism was the main reason for the downfall of Christianity, and I certainly hope that, in the same way, it will be the solution to the current ecological catastrophe (or otherwise we die, but that's a topic not central to the book). Despite the critiques I have, the book made me dream the whole time I was reading it (even more than when I was reading Utopia, by Thomas More, couple years ago, maybe because More's book was the first of the genre I read). The idea that people respect others, stay closer to each other in the winter to keep warm, do whatever they want (reading as many books as they want was and examples that was greatly compelling to me, ho-ho). This romantic, or else dreamy feeling of warmness is brought about by the fact that people or ibus, as they are called by the author, are assumed to be genuinely good. After all, our ultimate task is to make this happen!
Bottom line, the biggest obstacle for the execution of such and utopian-ecological future IS identified by the author him/herself. I choose to end the review by quoting it, and let the idea that the problem lies within the way our minds are structured, and more precisely our desires as innate determinants of our behaviour. Wouldn't it be nice to get rid of the eagerness to control everything and just calm down? One of the main messages of the book is that the centralized state is a non-fictional monster that is clearly unnecessary and obviously bringing more ills than happiness. Then why is it so hard to believe that abolishing it would solve the problems? Maybe because, on a certain level it becomes clear that it is impossible to stop it from emerging again. After all p.m. says it straight: "the first step to a central state is always the most harmless and inconspicuous" of them all.