Robert Bly's Sibling Society
I found Mr. Bly yanking the shadow out of me. In fact, I thought about throwing the book across the room a few times. However, such is often the case when a powerful author makes their point. To Bly the medium is the message. So, I suspect we won’t find the dapper psychology popularizer lurking around this website. Or much less, participating in anything remotely electronic, or innovative.
His criticism of modern society seemed like garlic to me. I know it was good for me, but I just can’t stand the smell. At some points in the book the smell became unbearable. For example, in Bly’s criticism of modernity and things such as the internet and big business, I noticed the nice glossy cover of Mr. Bly’s hardback book and also saw it in the front of every bookstore/coffee house I went to over Christmas break. Was he on Oprah as well?
I am only partly kidding. I just think just like every other ivory tower intellectual, Bly believes himself to be somehow different or better than the rabble that he despises. He believes himself to be back to nature, a real man's man, all the while racking in the doe from being on a bestseller list that is propped up by the same technology and big business that Bly dismisses. I have little tolerance for hypocrisy. Maybe I am no better than Mr. Bly, maybe none of us are. But, perhaps if he offered to throw it all off and “live deep” for seven or so years, maybe then I could respect his word as wisdom rather than just more rhetoric and slogan breath.
