ARA Review by colmaelstrom1 of In It Together

[colmaelstrom1]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, In It Together.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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This is an ambitious book. The author has a successful web site for readers where writers can promote their work. It’s no surprise this book has sold well and already has a lot of reviews.

This is a work of “New Age” philosophy. Hughes starts with words suggesting a Buddhist koan. “I am not going to say anything that you don’t know already”, but the problem is, “you don’t know you know.” And further on, “You don’t have to try; you don’t even have to listen. We just have to BE together.” This is almost non-sensical and becomes patronizing: “You are truly amazing . . . . The world only seems so cold and dark sometimes because you are so bright. Your incredible potential sets a high bar.”
The book deals with the age-old question. Is man basically good or evil. Hughes believes man has the “potential” for goodness, citing the quest for “Love, equality, freedom, and peace”, subjects that challenge “haters, sexists, racists, violent oppressors, murderers, rapists, enslavers”. Then the author recounts the history of oppression against women and blacks. While claiming “This is not a political book”, Hughes is clearly a progressive, believing society can be perfected. “The enslavements and false authorities from which this book seeks to see you liberated” exist not only in other humans, but in oneself, a lack of self-discipline which Hughes equates with “spiritual freedom”. United in the common struggle against suffering and having the unfulfilled desire of always wanting more, mankind has an instinctive, evolutionary trait, feeling “mental pain from seeing another human in pain.”
Our problems are myriad , children in poverty, extreme hunger, and massive starvation, and widespread incarceration: “millions of peaceful human beings suffering in cages like animals”, mostly in the U.S. where prisoners are “accused – not even convicted – of non-violent crimes”, like drug possession. What is the author’s solution? “Spiritual freedom” (i.e., self-discipline). Hughes believes, with rare exceptions, that everyone has the “sympathy instinct” for other humans. But we are stymied by a lack self-love: we can’t help others because we can’t help ourselves.
Life is a spiritual battle. The author describes it as a problem of “two yous”, the spirit versus the flesh. “You are a spirit. You have a body.” The most important thing about us is consciousness, “the one thing in the universe that cannot be an illusion.”
With passing time, the temporal world takes everything away, our achievements, possessions, and our bodies, leaving only our consciousness (our souls). Our “consciousness”, the author says, is the magic elixir making us “a force of love”, enabling us to love ourselves, the prerequisite for loving other conscious beings “as ourselves”.

Through the haze of theory, Hughes stresses “the fundamental unity of conscious beings [is] exemplified when one conscious being recognizes identical consciousness in another being and therefore truly loves that conscious being in a way that only a conscious being can love.”

The book is quite repetitious. Sections of the book are almost duplicates of previous parts, but a main premise is that (based on mutual consciousness) “We are beautifully united in a common struggle against the dull instincts and urges of these human bodies.” And finally, “We can take the unity . . . of the loving oneness of consciousness to” beat the flesh, find peace, and be free. “The winning strategy is to stop fighting . . . and let go of the desire to win the war, any war.”
This is done through ancient stoicism: “allow that which is out of your control to be as it is – for it will be as it is regardless. Accept it. Love it. Laugh at it if you want.” This is a tall order because, in truth, most everything is out of our control, except, as the author points out, “our choices.” But even our choices can go awry due to external forces. Ultimately, the only real choice we have is our attitude.
From here, the author launches into hallmarks of New Age religion. “Spiritually, you and I are one . . . one with all other conscious beings.” “The whole universe is our body”. “There is no evil . . . there are no shoulds and no oughts.” “It is what it is . . . just accept [what is]”.
This is an extreme view, flying in the face of common sense. Evil is real. There are “shoulds and oughts”. We have a legal system going back to the Ten Commandments, ethics and morality holding the fabric of society together. Wishing otherwise doesn’t make it so.
The book is an amalgam of ancient stoicism and New Age religion. While Hughes is a competent writer, the substance and expression of his views is shallow for a philosophy book.
I rate the book three out of five.

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View In It Together on Bookshelves

[Makaber269]

I struggled to read that book. I figured it was meant to prove that Scott could make a nonsensical redundant patronizing treatise a success with his forum and platform.