Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance--Book Review

This is a considerably older book than what I usually post about. But it is far more important now than it ever was before.  The life lessons and points of view are many and are very down right confusing but important. They are not important not only in the learning but in applying them in our lives as well.  This book is basically two fold. Every few pages a few paragraphs or two tell about the actual story and plot line.  Everything else is more like a technical manual. The first chapter is pretty heavy stuff, talking about ghosts, existentialism, budhhism, leaky faucets and more.

The actual story line is not half bad.  The narrator of the story and his 11 year old son go on a motorcycle with friends across the country. The narrator has a really big secret.  He had another personality named Phaedrus.  He took technology and philosophy too far and destroyed his personality. He was given a new personality. The new Phaedrus now as a narrator, tells the story.

Something interesting that the book covered was a discussion on the social concept called "national consciousness" and how it flowed in directions we might not necessarily like.He thought that technology was sometimes a bad thing.  Sometimes I agree with that, like in the creation of the atom bomb. We as a nation should have listened to Dr. Oppenheimer and his dire warnings 35 yrs earlier so that the Cold War would not have started.This was a negative direction for our national conciousness.

On the other hand, technology can be a good thing, like the medicines and treatments that we use for the good of all. I think that some people choose to embrace technology while others don't.  I think that is because sometimes there are parts of technology that people simply don't care about. An example of this would be my Ooma.  (my mom)  She has said that she doesn't like TV nearly as much as she likes computers. So she has a mental blockage about figuring out all the TV remotes, but she can do almost anything with a computer. (even though she is not a programmer or anything like that).

Our attitudes about technology come from how we are raised.  Maybe the whole nature/nurture debate can be applied directly here. There are many complicated issues that the book raises.  I like how it talks about Buddhism and exitentialism and more.  I invite readers to explore this amazing book and see what insights you find about technology and philosophy.