When the People Bubble POPs download epub

NOTE: I wrote this on 12/12/11. Don't know why it is labeled as 5/12/11.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a brilliant and compassionate man with an exceptionally strong sense of social justice. He is also an intellectual hero of mine who wrote a number of interesting books throughout his life.

It's a shame, then, that the last book he wrote before he died had to be so sloppy. Its redeeming value is that it does point to an elephant in the room that people don't want to acknowledge-- overpopulation-- but overall the way it is executed just does not work. It is poorly written and edited, spends a lot of time on irrelevant topics (such as the infamous German Cannibal), reeks of nihilism, and is laden with logical fallacies. With horrendously outdated sources, Kevorkian says a lot of things just for shock value, such as ostensibly advocating infanticide and ultimately entire species suicide in order to control the population... or, in this case, reduce it to zero. At the end, he says something to the effect of, "By the way, don't take this seriously. I just want to provoke you and get you to talk." Well, okay. You had me going there for a second, Jack.

As I said, I have great respect for Dr. Kevorkian for who he was as a person overall (his euthanasia campaign was just one of many amazing projects he threw himself into headfirst-- I read his biography and a number of articles and know pretty much everything about him that's publicly available) but... you know that expression, "A broken clock is right twice a day?" Well, Kevorkian was the opposite. He was a clock that functioned beautifully most of the time but malfunctioned every once in a while. This book is a perfect example of one of his "broken clock" moments. Mostly, it reminded me of a little kid drawing gruesome pictures and showing them to his parents just to see them freak out (something I used to do, but that's another story!). Clear and detailed analysis? No, not clear; detailed, yes (but in the wrong ways). Scholarly, it ain't.

I highly recommend the other books he wrote, all of which were written with clarity, lucidity, intelligence and, when relevant, compassion. They are:

1. "The Story of Dissection": This book gives an interesting history and overview of the practice of dissection. If you like Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," then you most certainly will like this.

2. "Medical Research and the Death Penalty: A Dialogue": This book is out of print, but my school library had it. This is a staged dialogue about Kevorkian's proposal of experimenting (with consent and heavy anesthesia, I emphasize!) on condemned criminals and acquiring organs for donation just before death. It diplomatically presents both sides of the issue in the form of a discussion.

3. "Prescription: Medicide-- The Goodness of Planned Death": Expanding a bit on his ideas in "Medical Research and the Death Penalty: A Dialogue," Kevorkian discusses the idea of terminally ill people who are suffering and want to die having the option of donating their live bodies for research under heavy anesthesia. He also, as implied, advocates this same research for condemned criminals (again, consent and anesthesia).

4. "GlimmerIQs": This fun book is a collection of Kevorkian's medical papers, music, artwork, limericks, and two out of print books "Slimmericks and the Demi-Diet" and "Beyond any Kind of God."

5. "Amendment IX: Our Cornucopia of Rights": An interesting, if controversial read, about what the Ninth Amendment ostensibly guarantees. This is a free download at [...]

Let me just start this off by mentioning one of the only voices of reason I ever believed in as a kid was my grandfather. Well he died... and i remember George Carlin. We would all sit around and watch his HBO specials attentively and laugh until we were sick. Throughout all the chaos and mental illness in my family. Carlin made sense. One of the only ones who made sense in my world.

Of course 2008 came along and took Carlin away from me. . I turned 21 (24 now) I was lucky enough to see a few interviews with this crazy loon named Jack Kevorkian. He was sitting, old and frail, freaking out at a young college reporter. Yelling and nearly cursing. An 80 year old Johnny Rotten verbally mauling the public as he seemed fit. Finally a living example of a good man who put everything on the line.

I don't know what to say about the fact that no one gives a damn about this man. Sure there is a film with pacino. Great. Pacino won a Plastic Gold Globe.. wow. I voted for obama, but not to give him the Nobel Peace prize wtf? Where's Jacks? Its not like he actually helped mankind with it's suffering. Oh waaaiit. Thats right he did... Jack was imprisoned for what? Being a criminal? Give me a break. and screw you for that matter. This man deserved More. He didn't even ask for more. He just believed in some stupid dream we all call america. The america that will burry jack today. Or tomorrow. Or incinerate him. and leave him nothing. Because it won't matter.

Im sure these books will be filtered and eradicated eventually, not unlike some Fahrenheit Nightmare. Welcome to America without Kevorkian - without H.S. Thompson - without Carlin - without Pryor - without Leary - without Burroughs. Welcome to the beige-est country you never tried to live. Welcome to 1,984,000 Lbs of excess, Fatty drama, humans who squander the greatest gifts of man, such as the brain.

May Jack rest in peace. I keep this book with me in my recording studio and Have been since the day it was released. I wish i could have thanked him personally, for making me feel less ashamed for actually following those completely retarded little things we call "Logic" and "Reason" and "Intuition".

Goodnight Jack. . . Thank you for your book. It truly gives me energy and ammunition for my mind. It helps me find the energy to deal with the stupidity of this foul society. It's a wonderful piece of education in a tidy little notebook. Very inspiring. Daring. Cutting. Edgy. Raw. Honest. Thats the most important. Honest.... Buy it. Read it - and Get real.

I only recently became aware of this book's existence, and read it due to my own passionate interest in the subject of human overpopulation and my admiration for the late Dr Kevorkian. Human overpopulation seems to be the elephant in the room that a lot of naturalists, "green" movement types, and environmentalists seem to choose to ignore, perhaps fearing the ugly (and false) racist or eugenic connotations, or perhaps out of their own selfish desire to reproduce. People talk about saving the planet, but why doesn't anyone want to talk about lowering the human population?

Kevorkian begins by addressing the problem of human population with a bit of history and background, detailing how factors such as the criminalization of infanticide and abortion, unenlightened humanitarianism, and the evils and vanity of human nature and civilization helped to create our current situation.

What can be done, in the interest of saving nature, our planet, the many other life forms that inhabit it? Kevorkian gives two options within this work: the Mini-Solution and the Mega-Solution. The Mini-Solution involves, in Kevorkian's own words, "enactment of laws or enforceable regulations to maintain a constant population density" at sustainable levels; an even better, further developed Mini-Solution would enable population *reduction* if necessary. As for the Mega-Solution? Well, if you're already disgusted by the Mini-Solution, you won't find it palatable, either, but if you feel the way that Dr Kevorkian and readers such as myself do, you'll wish we lived in a world that either had no need of such drastic measures, or else would willfully embrace it.

Highly recommended for those interested in the subject. We've lost a brilliant man.