Black Genesis

The first of the mission earth books I read. TBH this book did hook me to the series.
What a mistake, the rest of the series is addictive but disappointing.
Most of the amusement in this book is found in what I considerted at the time to be excellent satire - after reading the rest of the books I'm not so sure anymore if it is satire or just paranoid delusion. Either way I'd certainly recommend reading this book, but not reading the rest of the series

Well it seems that there are not many positive reviews of this book, or this series in fact, though Wikipedia does attempt to be neutral in its discussion of it, though when it refers to the reviews of the critics then it is really difficult to find somebody who is positive. The suggestion is that the characters are one dimensional and shallow, there is nothing really all that original in the story, and that the book is overtly long with no reason for it to be so. Further, it can be very difficult and painful to read, particularly with some of the graphic details that appear. Further, people have even attempted to get this book banned, though for a book to appear on the banned list it has to be a lot more than just badly written.
In show more this book Jethro and Soltan arrive on Earth and land in a secret base in Turkey. The base is located in a mountain that has an illusion covering it, though one must suspect that nobody actually climbs the mountain because one would suspect that if they do so then the illusion will be uncovered. They then go out on their respective missions, Jethro to save Earth and Soltan to prevent Jethro from doing so.
Hubbard has a big problem with psychology and psychiatry, considering them to be the reason why things on Earth are so bad. In his idealistic world, we would get rid of these professions, and in turn get rid of drugs, since drugs are a part of a government conspiracy to undermine the governments and populations of enemy nations. I probably would agree that drugs are destructive, but America has been scourged by drugs for decades and it still stands strong. However, a further argument could be that drugs are used to keep the underclass suppressed so that they don't rise up and overthrow the powers that be.
I want to finish off with a quick mention of psychology (and its medical cousin psychiatry). Now, first of all they are very inexact sciences, and as one has suggested, that the science is still medieval. However, I would not necessarily consider them bad, only the practitioners. Psychology for instance is really designed to assist in behavioural abnormalities. Now most people who go and see psychs tend to be too embarrassed to tell anybody, but to be honest with you that is the case for all medical problems. However, as a quick matter to finish off, Psychology is not necessarily about control and submission, but about assisting people to think well, to develop their self-confidence, and to become a productive member of society. I suspect that certain elements don't like psychology as it encourages people to think for themselves and to feel good about themselves, whereas these groups would much prefer us to feel ashamed of ourselves and to hand ourselves and our will over to them so that they may control us (and I am not necessarily speaking about Scientology here, I am pointing the finger at a lot of organised religious institutions). As George Bernard Shaw once said, 'beware of the man whose God is in the sky'. show less

MISSION EARTH

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