Not long ago, on November 4, 2008, the celebrated writer Michael Crichton, author of such novels as Jurassic Park and Timeline, passed away unexpectedly in what can only be described as uncanny circumstances. His sudden, "unanticipated" demise of cancer at the age of 66 curiously echoes the fate of one of the main characters in his penultimate novel, State of Fear—the millionaire philanthropist, George Morton. An ardent supporter of environmental causes, Morton succumbs to a mysterious car accident near the beginning of the novel. (SPOILER ALERT!) It turns out, however, that Morton has only faked his death, which is more than can be said of the unfortunate fate of the author who created him. (END SPOILER)
The novel depicts Morton succumbing to a bout of apparent insanity just prior to his “death”—plagued by mysterious, inarticulate fears concerning the environmental organization he funds through his charitable donations. In a somewhat romanticized turn of the fictional events of the novel, the environmental organization, the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) happens to be affiliated with an environmental terrorist organization (ELF or the Environmental Liberation Front) whose object is to create manufactured environmental catastrophes on a global scale using esoteric, cutting-edge “environmental technology,” in an attempt to promote its environmental agenda and achieve its fund-raising goals.
While this admittedly far-fetched page-turner plot is guaranteed to offend the sensibilities of passionate environmentalist liberals everywhere, some of the themes this novel addresses are worth discussing seriously because they are so profoundly relevant to the condition of our present-day society. The truth is that the novel, State of Fear, is guaranteed to be offensive to liberal sensibilities because it goes out of its way to critique and parody the liberal position. Some of the characters in the novel, such as the television actor Ted Bradley, an arrogant boor motivated by a romanticized idealism that is completely misinformed and out of touch with the grim realities of the issues he deals with in his well-intentioned, if self-absorbed, attempts at environmental spokesmanship, are outright caricatures and ruthless parodies of Hollywood liberal elites. In fact, Crichton's completely unsympathetic and laughable rendition of this character and the horrifying fate he meets with in the end—(SPOILER ALERT!) being devoured by cannibals on a tropical island (END SPOILER)—lends credence to the possibility that the author's demise might well have occurred under suspicious circumstances.
One of the themes, among many, that the novel addresses is the dangers associated with well-intentioned ignorance. To make his point, the author describes the history of Yellowstone National Park. After making a well-researched case that seriously calls into question the scientific basis of the phenomenon of global warming, the author describes how misguided, though well-meaning, conservationist efforts and interventionist policies by park managers in the maintenance of the natural preserve over the years have had a catastrophic effect on the park's ecosystem. In the words of Kenner, a scientist and one of the novel's main characters:
“So what you have,” Kenner said, “is a history of ignorant, incompetent, and disastrously intrusive intervention, followed by attempts to repair the intervention, followed by attempts to repair the damage caused by the repairs, as dramatic as any oil spill or toxic dump. Except in this case there is no evil corporation or fossil fuel economy to blame. This disaster was caused by environmentalists charged with protecting the wilderness, who made one dreadful mistake after another—and along the way, proved how little they understood the environment they intended to protect.”
In another critical sequence in the novel, Crichton describes an encounter between Peter Evans, the lawyer protagonist of the novel, and Professor Norman Hoffman, a crackpot scientist with some radical ideas. His thesis is that the world of human ideas, subject to trends and fashions, obeys an ecology of its own, not unlike the ecology of the natural world. He suggests that some ideas can continue to be accepted by society at large long after they have been scientifically disproved, and claims that the concept of a “balance of nature” is one such idea. Hoffman then describes his research at USC into global media trends, claiming that after Fall, 1989, there was a major shift in the way the media covered the news. Citing statistics on the use of vocabulary by media sources, Hoffman suggests that the trend in the media appears to have been “a heightened emphasis on fear, worry, danger, uncertainty, panic.” Hoffman points out that November 9, 1989 marked the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Empire—the end of the Cold War. He suggests that a “sovereign state” seeks to exercise social control over its citizenry through fear and intimidation. The fall of Communism created, what he calls, a “vacuum of fear.” In order to fill this vacuum, the threat of environmental catastrophes appears to have come to the surface. Hoffman continues:
“Of course, now we have radical fundamentalism and post-9/11 terrorism to make us afraid, and those are certainly real reasons for fear, but that is not my point. My point is, there is always a cause for fear. The cause may change over time, but the fear is always with us. Before terrorism we feared the toxic environment. Before that we had the Communist menace. The point is, although the specific cause of our fear may change, we are never without the fear itself. Fear pervades our society in all its aspects. Perpetually.”
Hoffman then cites President Eisenhower's famous speech warning of the dangers of the excesses of the military-industrial complex. However, he claims that:
“. . . the military-industrial complex is no longer the primary driver of society. In reality, for the last fifteen years we have been under the control of an entirely new complex, far more powerful and far more pervasive. I call it the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the populace—under the guise of promoting safety.”
He adds:
“. . . the PLM is powerful and stable, precisely because it unites so many institutions of society. Politicans need fears to control the population. Lawyers need dangers to litigate, and make money. The media need scare stories to capture an audience. Together, these three estates are so compelling that they can go about their business even if the scare is totally groundless. If it has no basis in fact at all.”
Hoffman then suggests:
“I'm telling you, this is the way modern society works—by the constant creation of fear. And there is no countervailing force. There is no system of checks and balances, no restraint on the perpetual promotion of fear after fear after fear . . .”
Hoffman then continues his rant against social evils, which appears to become increasingly eccentric. And while Crichton subtly undermines these ideas by having them voiced by an apparently paranoid character, I cannot help but acknowledge their appeal and the power they have to address some of the common experiences of modern life. It's hard to say how much validity they have, but these ideas are, at least, worth considering.
These and other original ideas are some of the reasons that I find this controversial novel to be an engaging read. It is a pity that Crichton was denied the opportunity to follow it up with many more. May he rest in peace!
Horizon Cybermedia, meanwhile, hopes to continue the innovative tradition of Michael Crichton's novels, by producing media content that calls into question the things that most of us take for granted. Currently in production is a series of short films about the Wine Country of Sonoma, CA, continuing the Exploration series of films. Stay tuned for these films to be released soon at our website http://www.explorationtheseries.com.
Wishing you the very best,
Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.
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