Posts
'via Blog this'
(Everyone should read this book and it should be required reading in high school. My ex-republican friend who works for Walmart started to read it and instantly took offense to the word slave and to the implication that she might be one. Sad, because she never finished and she needs the book more than most.
The slavery Gerry talks about is the chains in our mind and how we want to fit in and do what we're told and call that success but often it ends up meaning we are living the same day over and over until we drop dead. people have an idea that they can retire and then start living, never thinking about the toll the grind takes on us-IMO. He doesn't say don't work, he says question work, it's purpose and your relation to doing what you do and whether you are doing something you feel good about. it isn't about money but your life.
He also mentions slavery, or blindly following religious rhetoric. I, just by association, had a more or less generic God/Heaven/Hell view that i knew logically didn't make sense but I grew up with it even though my parents did not inflict it on me. It was just in my town and my family. I think it was this book that made me sit up and take notice that, "Wait a minute! I don't have to be scared of Hell! That's not my God! It's not even my religion! it'd be like me being scared of a Muslim God or a...I don't know, being reincarnated as a Mosquito.
I was skeptical of religion anyway, and since I read the Bible as a pre-teen even then I had taken a fenist bent and basically a "Really? Fuck YOU" attitude towards all that paternalistic bullshit. This book simply made me not feel vaguely guilty about it and strengthened my convictions.
I always thought religion was more or less a way of men controlling women, but not that I've read "Bushwacked," by Molly Ivens, and "The Bush Dynasty" by I forget who, I see the bigger picture. Religion is just a big con. Some douche who we'd now call a fascist took into consideration that innocent people were making up stories in order to better understand the world. Like a Ringling Brother, said fascist harnessed that power of myth and here we are, killing each other senselessly fore eons.
"The Power of Myth," another good one.
Anyway, read this book, get past feeling insulted that you might be a slave to something-my ex-Republican friend fully admits the "almighty dollar" drives her, but all she does is work and shop and she is severely unhappy, living where she doesn't want to in a house she hates but doesn't want to lose money selling, at a job she feels grateful for having-like WalMart won't hire anybody-because they gave it to her at a low point in her life. I ask her what's the worst that can happen if she leaves her alcoholic husband and she says, "I might get sick have no one to take care of me." her husband is sickly and ten years older so the likelihood of her being taken care of by him is slim to none. She doesn't want to die alone, so she's living miserably instead. Isn't that nuts?
A Veteran wrote in my yearbook: "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." I don't know if he said it first, but it's the first time I heard it and I didn't get it when I was seventeen, but I get it now. Truer words were never spoken.
I think it was fear that she would notice she really was enslaved so she had to quickly deny it. I didn't think I was at all enslaved so I kept reading only to discover Gerry was right! How many ideas were not my own but just stuck in my head via TV, fairy tales, movies, commercials, ads, The Man, peer pressure, whatever.
I hadn't been thinking for myself. I had my own ideas which I was more or less squelching, even though they were common sense. Now, I am fine with being an individual. This book might actually make you happy.
My republican-shopper married friend has plenty of money but she's unhappy. She has insurance and a house and a mortgage she's not got screwed on and a husband. Dog, cat, blahblahblah and it's just weighing her down. At the risk of sounding like a hippie I have to say: the more things I've shed, the more free I've felt. Obviously that is something never to be advertised or stuck in your head via TV or ads. They want to sell stuff to you. I think Gerry's message is, don't buy it unless YOU want it.)
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
This book will wake you up!, October 18, 2001
By
sandra g. (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Seven Simple Steps to Personal Freedom: An Owner's Manual for Life (Hardcover)
This review deals with the effect Gerry's bookhad on me and I hope it will inspire you to get
the book and do deep reflection. I've only read
maybe 4 books in my lifetime(50 years old) which
caused me to look deeply at my behavior,values
and attitudes as part of the global problem of
"slavery"...Yes we are all slaves to something; and only by
realizing what you are enslaved to can you begin
to experience "real freedom". My slavery like your
slavery is particularly related to "working for
someone else". While he does not recommend you
quit your job tomorrow, you still might want to
explore the nature of your enslavement...
Another area explored which I like is that of "hypocrisy";
most poignant in the book, and I wonder if this is
what caused Gerry to write the book:was the experience
he had when one of the "elitist" restaurants would
not let him in with blue jeans (and to make a long
story short) Gerry ask the Maitre d if he would let
Jeffrey Dahmer in with a "fine suit". I would have loved
to be there in that moment. Gerry is "real people"...
Gerry's book is not another pithy self help book with
affirmations, writing exercises, dream and fantasy techniques.
No this book is deeper; if you have a sincere desire and spirit to understand what is wrong with the world ; and truly
believe in freedom , justice and equality, then this is
the book for you....
It warms my heart Gerry took the time to present us with
the deepest and most profound self help book in the world
as far as I'm concerned. You see Gerry doesn't make his
living off of writing self help books--he doesn't need the
money. I can tell he wrote this book to wake up people
to their own level of enslavement and hypocrisy.
Thank you Gerry(hope to meet you in person one day)...
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Most Powerful Book I have ever read, May 8, 2003
By
Helena Bianchi (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Seven Simple Steps to Personal Freedom: An Owner's Manual for Life (Hardcover)
This is, indeed,the most influencial book I have ever read! It is very powerful; and do you know why? Simply because it is the truth. Do you want to hear the truth? Well, read this book!!!Thank you Gerry Spence for letting your heart and your soul pour out when writing this book: As a reader, I could truly see inside your heart and could see exact situations happening in my life just in another form. I especially like the chapter: " withholding permission to lose." When things are not going right for some reason in my life, I think it boils down to that chapter.
I am reading the book for the second time; and I always keep it handy. It is, indeed, "An Owner's Manual for Life." You will not regret buying this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment