State of Fear

"State of Fear races on a roller coaster thrill ride across the globe - from the volcanoes of Antarctica to the streets of Paris and the beaches of Los Angeles - all the while keeping the brain in high gear. Gripping and thought-provoking, this potent blend of scientific fact and pulse-pounding action is Michael Crichton at his very best."

Source: http://www.crichton-official.com

Those were the words that captivated me into buying the book. It all started when I was in Rome, Italy last June for a business trip. We attended a gala dinner on the second night and we engaged in a discussion about books that we've read. There were flowing red wine, good food and good company. Great big laughters to top the night. As we were talking about books and global warming and how Rome's temperature is not what we've expected, we came to Crichton's "State of Fear". Everyone gave it a two thumbs-up. It was highly recommended. Of the 10 at the table, 4 read the book and agreed, almost in unison that the book was a superb read.

Needless to say, when I returned to Kuala Lumpur, I went for book shopping. One of the books that I bought was of course, "State of Fear".

The story started with incidents occurring in various parts of the world. People die from mysterious murders and rendezvous. These incidents are at first puzzling and then slowly, everything comes together to form a very substantial picture and end-game.

All of us have the notion that global warming would one day destroy Earth, or if not, make it a living hell. However, in this book, the theory of global warming and its effects were refuted in a series of events and discussion that took place in various parts of the world. Something that I found very refreshing. What made it more interesting was that the facts as laid out in the book were indeed, facts. References were quoted as footnotes and more at the back of the book as Appendices vis-à-vis global warming and other environmental issues. There were bibliographies. I actually verified a few of the references and they were real and was used correctly and appropriately in the book to demonstrate Crichton's angles. See Crichton's biography here and you'll know that he knows what he's talking about.

As the story develops, you will notice that all of us actually live in the state of fear, for centuries. Governments, medias, lawyers and NGOs instill fear in us to put us in a state where we fear something and that they (institutions above) would step in to mitigate the fear and ultimately control it. By controlling it, they control us. If we ever notice at all, when one incident/catastrophe occurs (regardless or scale) and end (with whatever the effect), another pops up and take over and the cycle continues. At every pivotal period of these incidents, there'll be organisations that will step in to do their "thing". Therefore, we constantly live in the state of fear that apparently brings order to things via new regulations, new rules, new way of living and etc (although they may not be effective). In short, a series of unfortunate events at global scale and impact that keep us "in order".

To a certain extent, steps were taken at the expense of other factors or should I say, living beings. There's always a trading cost. This is very clearly illustrated in the book. In Crichton's book, in order to garner enough publicity and instill fear amongst the population of the world, the NGOs went on to "create" a global environmental threat that would cause lives in the millions. All these were done in order to get the media to capture real time coverage of these impending occurrence that will kill millions around the world, to prove their points (in this case, the point was global warming - even if it's not true but generally accepted), to instill fear and to get funding.

A group of people came together from very different backgrounds to prevent the NGOs from carrying out their plans. Along the way, there were cannibalism, human vaporisation, humans controlling the path of hurricanes and storms, humans creating flash floods in a matter of seconds, rockets, satellites and poisons. Crichton blended all the above with proper scientific findings, intense actions, wits and of course humour.

When you finish the book, you may start to wonder whether all the threats that are happening in the world today (environmental or otherwise) were specifically "created" by certain groups of people and organisations that have specific interests and stakes in areas that we will never find out. I did.

I wondered whether the 2004 Tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people was a 100% natural environmental catastrophe or a catastrophe with certain "specifications", tailor made and initiated by powerful shadow organisations/individuals to drive home certain points and achieve their objectives... But of course, this is my baseless suspicion after reading the book. (grin).