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The Bridge
Broken into two parts, The Bridge by David Hillstrom is an intriguing blend of the philosophical and the political. With an exceptionally bold and highly readable prose, the author’s nimble revelations provide a benchmark analysis of modern thought that challenges archetypal religious structures and the other usual suspects. Not for the meek, open-minded readers will first examine the human tendencies toward myth and in the latter section, the advent of reliable political structures. Forward thinking is necessary; this work of non-fiction reads as a collection of essays and by fiat builds a human society free of falsehoods and fabrications and the entanglements of outdated human inventions. Occasionally allegoric with some poetic insertions, this serious treatise is compact, convenient and engaging.
130 pages, Paperback
First published July 22, 2008
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June 26, 2009
I felt that David Hillstrom’s The Bridge read like an inverted pyramid. It starts out easy to follow and agree with then once it hits his valley it becomes a much steeper uphill climb, or at least it did for me.
The first section, part one, David lays out his reasoning that religion, whether it be organized or simply internalized, is for naught and that we would all personally be better off without it and that society as a whole really does not need it, especially the more harmful aspects of religious beliefs. There is much here that I can agree with and echo. I do believe that holding on to many of our religious cultural icons and beliefs not only holds back progress, but agree with the author that can be extremely dangerous on both a personal level as well as a societal level. We are in agreement. I didn’t feel like the author missed his mark much with this part of the book, although quite often I felt like he might have been stating the obvious a few too many times. But nonetheless the writing style was clear and concise enough to keep my head in it throughout this section.
This is the downhill part. Then there is the uphill part.
The uphill part is where David Hillstom decides to talk about politics and here I drift far, far away from his book’s assertions. First off it would seem to be that David is trying to build here some kind of godless utopia ruled by a global government. I personally believe in global cooperation but not on global government so I cannot go along for the ride too well with part two of the book. Anyone who knows me would know that I would find such proposals and assertions to be on the bane side but at the same time I can be swayed by strong arguments, which I think were lacking in the second section of The Bridge. Obviously David Hillstrom hasn’t met me so he couldn’t argue personally his point more vigorously than was presented in his book. Hillstrom seems to put forward at least the skeleton of what would be an over arching and over ruling political entity that is there to protect us from ourselves. I find this brand of socialistic uptopia indefensible – but that is a personal point of view. And I am not so sure that this is actually companion issue to whether or not there is a god in Heaven watching down over us.
At the end of the day, I felt the writing itself in the book was fluid and David Hillstrom got his points across. I felt that proving these points is definitely another story. To me part one was a slam dunk. And part two? Well, let’s just say that I strongly beg to differ. The bridge to reason, as Hillstrom like to refer to it, stretches a mighty long way. Further than I think it should in this book’s case.
The first section, part one, David lays out his reasoning that religion, whether it be organized or simply internalized, is for naught and that we would all personally be better off without it and that society as a whole really does not need it, especially the more harmful aspects of religious beliefs. There is much here that I can agree with and echo. I do believe that holding on to many of our religious cultural icons and beliefs not only holds back progress, but agree with the author that can be extremely dangerous on both a personal level as well as a societal level. We are in agreement. I didn’t feel like the author missed his mark much with this part of the book, although quite often I felt like he might have been stating the obvious a few too many times. But nonetheless the writing style was clear and concise enough to keep my head in it throughout this section.
This is the downhill part. Then there is the uphill part.
The uphill part is where David Hillstom decides to talk about politics and here I drift far, far away from his book’s assertions. First off it would seem to be that David is trying to build here some kind of godless utopia ruled by a global government. I personally believe in global cooperation but not on global government so I cannot go along for the ride too well with part two of the book. Anyone who knows me would know that I would find such proposals and assertions to be on the bane side but at the same time I can be swayed by strong arguments, which I think were lacking in the second section of The Bridge. Obviously David Hillstrom hasn’t met me so he couldn’t argue personally his point more vigorously than was presented in his book. Hillstrom seems to put forward at least the skeleton of what would be an over arching and over ruling political entity that is there to protect us from ourselves. I find this brand of socialistic uptopia indefensible – but that is a personal point of view. And I am not so sure that this is actually companion issue to whether or not there is a god in Heaven watching down over us.
At the end of the day, I felt the writing itself in the book was fluid and David Hillstrom got his points across. I felt that proving these points is definitely another story. To me part one was a slam dunk. And part two? Well, let’s just say that I strongly beg to differ. The bridge to reason, as Hillstrom like to refer to it, stretches a mighty long way. Further than I think it should in this book’s case.
Displaying 1 of 1 review