The Velvet Monkey Wrench

by John Muir

From universal human rights and a justice system based on truth to new concepts in education and public transportation, author John Muir presents his highly original, often outrageous common-sense ideas for creating a world based on peace and harmony. An ideal gift for any afficionado of sixties-era nostalgia.

247 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1973

About the author

John Muir (1918–1977) was an aerospace engineer who worked for Lockheed, who "dropped out," 1960s-style, to become a long-haired car mechanic with a garage in Taos, New Mexico, specializing in maintenance and repair of Volkswagens. He is a descendant of the naturalist John Muir.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Social Utopian treatise written by VW mechanic with many ideas and concepts that are relevant to our society.
Should be required reading for every secondary and college student in the world.

[Quinn Massie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In what I might call a 70’s version of Plato’s Republic, Muir’s VMW is a prescient take on societal reform. It becomes kind of dense and jumbly in parts, mostly due to Muir’s understanding of computational technology which though advanced for the time, 50 years later is dated. This one problem could be easily fixed with a modern revision/edit, which sadly is very unlikely. Awesome ideas are contained within the pages of VMW and I would recommend to anyone who wants progress and a better world.

[David Brightbill]

Cross engineering, government and art and you might just get this book. It was written by a rocket scientist who set his chickens free and became a VW mechanic. It's an entertaining and thoughtful read.

[Michael A. Lewis]

Rereading John's opus for the first time since it was published - even more pertinent now than it. was then!

If more had taken his work to heart, our world would be in lots better shape than it is now, environmentally, politically and socially.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book that wrestled with the civilization's post WWII discomfort. Muir writes well, and is the author of the best example of tech writing I know: How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, a Manual Of Step By Step Instructions for the Compleat Idiot. This book is his attempt to fix civilization. While it has a great breadth of imagination thinking about hacking civilization and making it better, and while some of what he suggests came to pass with the birth of the internet, Muir's vision is awfully mechanistic (as one might expect from a mechanical engineer and a mechanic), and while it gives lots of opportunities for human-ness, the system is at least as inherently inhuman as the one it would replace.

As a read for amusement's sake, it's frankly a flop. As a cultural artifact of the 1960s to early 1970s it's interesting, and for John Muir fans who want to see his only other work (richly illustrated with Peter Aschwanden cartoons, much like the VW book) it's interesting. There are some good ideas, but it gets awfully dry in spots.

[Theodore Starks · Rating 3 out of 5]

utopia!

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was a long time ago..