Future Primal: How Our Wilderness Origins Show Us the Way Forward

As a professor at the University of Hawai'i - West Oahu, Dr. Louis G. Herman has touched the lives of many students in such a way that, by the end of a single semester, his students are transformed from ordinary, confused college kids into freethinking individuals having the capacity to change the world. It's hard to believe that a group of college students actually looked forward to attending class, especially something related to government, but it is true in the case of Dr. Herman. If Herman's classroom is powerful enough to literally change the mundane, common outlook of stubborn twentysomethings, then imagine just how amazing his book could be! Well, imagine no longer. For the small amount this book costs, the knowledge you gain is priceless.In order to best move forward, modern civilization must reflect upon its past.Through Louis G. Herman's creative blend of history, spirituality, nature, and politics, we are made more aware of ourselves, each other, and our ultimate place in the universe. Modernity has brought many exceptionally outstanding advancements in industry, but as we are growing ever more dependent on technology, we are left disconnected from the natural world. Herman offers great historical examples of how various tribal politics worshipped the land and its inhabitants out of recognition that it ultimately sustains all of life. Future Primal demonstrates how we spent 90% of our life on this planet as hunter gatherers and why this sort of connection to the earth was our ultimate tool for daily survival -- not only because plants and animals gave us our food, but in how the great Mystery to life was celebrated through ritual. His personal experience of growing up in South Africa, the birthplace of our species, along with the time he later spent with the Kalahari Bushmen, makes for incredible insight as to how we can reconnect with each other and the earth's soil by historically examining how we lived in (the majority of) our past. Herman also gives us a great personal narrative that helps us better understand how he reached his "aha! moment" for making Future Primal. He teaches us that while the great works of various political theorists are necessary in order to create a better sense of a world view, our personal narrative serves as the ultimate source for knowledge of the Truth, or the "bigger picture."My gained knowledge from Future Primal is this: civilization is at a crucial turning point -- an awakening of its consciousness -- and every individual should seek answers from within themselves as to how we can reverse our current downfall. We have caused mass ecocide, which Herman explains in full detail, and it's our job and duty to fix this situation. Future Primal's toolkit is also a refreshing touch and serves as a great way for learning how each of us can immediately begin to change ourselves and our current, often limited, worldview. By offering up simple -- yet remarkably realistic -- guidelines for how we can become a truer sense of ourselves (like we were for the 90% of our wild past), we can reawaken with purpose and reverse manmade global destruction. Unlike other books that merely dream of utopian societies, Herman combines an array of extensive knowledge from areas such as tribal politics, art, creativity, individuality, collectiveness, Taoism, Zionism, military combat, Eric Voegelin's political concepts, the healing properties of nature, global comparative politics, cosmology, Liberalism, anthropology, archaeology, and geography -- all of which mostly stem from his own personal experiences. Future Primal lies at the heart of the matter in why religion and politics cannot be separate from each other. Powerful stuff.Lastly, Future Primal is dedicated to the author's daughter "and her generation" -- which not only brought a tear to my eye, but I thought it was such a lovely touch for this true masterpiece. The quote "We do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children" came immediately to my mind.The most inspiring book I've ever read. The one and only of its kind.

Future Primal is an extraordinary book. It tells the story of one man's search for meaning in a journey that begins in Southern Africa, the birthplace of humanity, travels back in time to the beginning of the universe and ends with a vision of a future world rooted in a new paradigm of consciousness. It is a book which has the power to change our lives and perhaps help change the direction of our civilization.Combining evolutionary cosmology, human evolution, Socratic philosophy, anthropology, psychology, the wisdom of ancient hunter-gatherers, a love of wilderness and a passion for life, the story takes us through the 13.7 billion years' big history of our origins to understand the possibilities for human beings, who in the words of U2, "still haven't found what we're looking for" in a world beset by crisis. It is a quest for truth and at the same time an investigation into the structure of the quest for truth.The book deals with some of the most profound questions in philosophy and politics, questions which seem to baffle many academic philosophers, questions like the nature of good and evil, the connection between consciousness and reality, and the question of questions, "how can we have reliable knowledge of the best way to live?." At the same time the book is written without philosophical jargon, clearly and directly, in a way that people who have never even taken a university philosophy course can follow. Future Primal clarifies these issues by taking them back to their primal beginnings in the evolutionary unfolding of humanity. It explains them with concrete examples and stories that everyone can relate to, in exceptional prose which, in places, borders on fine poetry. It brings to mind "one of a kind" books like Robert Prisig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which unites real life experience with philosophy; and Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, which combines the quest for truth with storytelling and a feeling of being at home in the natural world. In some ways Future Primal transcends these books, weaving together the personal experience of the author, the latest scientific understandings of the evolution of the cosmos and homo sapiens, the politics of hunter-gatherers and a love of wilderness into a grand personal and philosophical adventure.It is an adventure that begins with a return to the world of Southern African hunter-gatherers. The author explains how over millennia societies like the !Kung San developed a social and political life based on "personal growth in face-to-face communication within democratic communities which lived in shamanic communication with the wilderness that gave birth to them." These processes are "our species birthright" and persist in us today forming an archetypal structure of consciousness. We have forgotten this template in the thrall of our technological development and our obsession with mastery over nature.The author shows how this archetypal pattern is beginning to re-emerge in new forms, in many areas of our personal and collective lives across the globe. He presents a vision that could ease the suffering and destruction plaguing our species while contributing to a planetary civilization based on awakening to this primal political dynamic. It is a vision of a way of life in which, as the author puts it, "the structure of the search for meaning itself becomes the good life we seek--a Tao of politics."Finally, Future Primal ends with appendix containing a "toolkit," a series of practices which enables the reader to enhance future primal processes in his or her daily life. Reading this book could help transform our world by transforming the reader.A video of a presentation about the book by the author and hosted by Brian Swimme is now available online. A discussion with Richard Tarnas and Paul Caringella follows the talk. Both are well worth watching. On You Tube do a search for "Prof. Louis Herman."

I purchased this book based on a glowing review related to the film My Octopus Teacher, but I was somewhat disappointed. The basic premise, that we have drifted too far from our connections to the natural world, is both obvious and urgent, but the book has very little in the way of specific recommendations and instead spends massive amounts of time ruminating about the author's past history with Judaism. I did finish the book, so it's not that bad, but I really had hoped to learn more about current energy that might be expended on getting people back to a natural rhythm. To that end, the author makes no mention of the somewhat recent explosion in interest in the outdoor world. Driven perhaps by Instagram, outside resources everywhere are getting strained by humans. Isn't that somewhat of a return to the natural world? Or is it a perversion of that? The book does not say. Finally, the book only very briefly mentions how even tribal relations to the natural world are not perfect -- how natives can be hard on the planet. This is something that writers in this area often skip over -- native lifestyles are not always perfect either.

I know Louis - have done for 40 years, so if you like you can stop reading my review now. Future Primal is the distillation of an honestly examined life, plus a lifetime of study and engaged teaching by a truly Socratic personality, who is also at home in wilderness, and humble before nature. Louis has used his own quite adventurous and varied life experiences as an instrument, together with hugely wide-ranging scholarship and discussion across the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, politics, philosophy and history, in his own truth quest. Few books of political philosophy, if any, have the author as a key character, are absorbing, rich in anecdote and examples, deal with the most fundamental issues facing humanity, but are also fun to read. You will learn, but you will also be drawn in experientially to knowing how you as an individual are part of the big picture. Despite the lateness of the hour and the multiple threats to our planet, Future Primal tells us how, by following our own truth quest, we can all make more progress towards living the good life, the search for which is the ultimate question of engaged philosophy, and that by doing this we will be taking our share of responsibility for bringing about a new politics in tune with human evolution - that might just be a key to saving the planet.