Official Review: The Goal of Society-A Necessary Knowledge

[Airam Velarde]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Goal of Society-A Necessary Knowledge" by Osratf Aalacad.]

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Is the goal of our society today working towards true progress? Osratf Aalacad, a self proclaimed existentialist, poses this question to us in this nonfiction work entitled The Goal of Society - A Necessary Knowledge. Thought provoking and idealistic, Aalacad, presents to us the current state of our society along with its faults, and offers us a solution on how to reach an ideal society, or as it is referred to, a state of Utopia.

As the title of the book suggests, the main argument of this work is the goal our society currently has as opposed to the goal it should actually strive to achieve. Aalacad suggests that society’s current undertaking is the creation of a capitalistic techno utopia. In simpler terms, it is a movement centered around economic progress and technological advancement. The author states that “the main focus of society lies with the economy, and minimal effort is spent on the welfare of the people.” Aalacad goes on to say, “What I do not believe in is the current notion impressed upon us that economic progress is the one mechanism that can be used to bring about true progress, -- For what is the purpose of progress if not to ensure the continued happiness of the human species?” The Goal of Society takes us further by acknowledging problems such as inequality, oppression, and Consumerism and the effects it has had on our environment. Problems like these are what the author states are keeping us from an ideal society. Furthermore, he gives us his “Six Ideal Conditions” for achieving a state of Utopia and a view on how this ideal society, or “Existential Havens”, as they are called, would look like.

While I liked the interesting and thought provoking theme this book gave, the way in which it was written was sometimes confusing. I feel this stemmed from Aalacad’s choice of words. There are some topics like the “Existential Havens” that I could not bring myself to understand even though I reread them. Maybe if they had been explained in simpler ways, they would be more understandable. I also found that the author, while trying to explain something in great detail, oftentimes strayed from his original thought onto another irrelevant one. Aalacad even states how exhausting and brain-draining writing a certain topic was. Which brings me to another point. Scattered throughout the writing are unrelated comments made by the author himself, such as: “Wow, I initially mistyped this.” These types of comments and a writing style that often sounded too casual, take away from what could have been a more serious subject matter.

On the topic of “Existential Havens”, the author gives us his view on what an ideal society would look like. He refers to an Expansive Universe technology that would make all this possible. This technology is to us more commonly known as a Virtual Reality. I think here the subject became too idealistic and even fictional, as opposed to the serious topics that were first discussed. Aalacad even went as far as saying that the world created for online role playing games would be the ideal one and would give us a more concrete sense of purpose. This sudden turn to a sci-fi world made Aalacad lose a bit of credibility in my eyes.

Apart from the shortcomings above mentioned, The Goal of Society - A Necessary Knowledge presented some topics that make you really think about our society today and how we could improve it. I would recommend reading this book with an open mind because to some it might be too idealistic or far fetched. For these reasons I give this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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