Prisons We Choose to Live Inside
Ratings1
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings1
Average rating3.5
One of the world's most extraordinary writers addresses directly the prime questions before us all: how to think for ourselves, how to understand what we know, how to pick a path in a world deluged with opinions and information, how to look at our society and ourselves with fresh eyes. A small book with high impact and enormous carrying power.
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The first point I want to highlight in the review is that the book consists of five lectures given on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1985 (As suggested neatly in the end).
The reason I point this out being the plot feels like a serious of lectures, which inhibits the scope and depth, which are possible with the written word via the book.
Now with this out of the way, what we have is a decent amount of arguments, claims and examples for a democractic society and against the tyrannical ones (Who would have gueesed huh?).
The main idea can be condenced to - learn history, expirience human memory through the works of literature and be greatful (if you live in a democracy, of course) for what you have even if it's not perfect, it's still a result of just a few hundred years.
Mrs. Lessing talks a lot about the fields of humanitarian sciences, escpecially sociology and psychology, putting forward the importance of continuous research of human behaviour as a necessary part of the civilization progress. Those statements possibly were ahead of the time, I do enjoy the examles scattered here and there of South Rhodesia, England. The most vivid one would be the manuscript submission using a pseudonym, whereas all the ‘‘Experts on Mrs. Lessing'' who swiftly reject it for “not being good enough'' which I find quite relatable even nowadays for people to fall for or, perphaps, better to say for people to overestimate their susceptibility to biases, group think etc. Now the Developed/Developing world does, indeed, put a large emphasis (both in quality and quantity) on analyzing and researching the mental state of affairs of both individual and society, which I find, to the benefit of the Author, quite a progressive vision proven right with time.
To sum up, indeed, it is a pretty short serious of lectures (78 pages), which is definetely not enough for an in-depth exploration of the subject. Yet by using the rich language interwined with history/life examples it still provides a positive overall view of progress, touching the topics of individual beliefs, group think, religion and others thus all the possible “prisons'' we can live in, without actually aknowledging it.
