Fromm originally wrote this work to explore the psychological reason for the success of Nazism in Germany. But the book also explores the pathologies inherent in modernity itself. Modernity introduced radical destabilizing forces into traditional economic, political and religious structures. This caused mass anxiety which resulted in people becoming subject to cults, religions and political movements that promise stability, surety and predictability. This is a wonderful insight that can explain such varied 20th century phenomena as the return to religious fundamentalism, political fanaticism, mindless admiration for pop stars etc. His interpretation of the Old Testament could serve as a wonderful antidote to Jewish and Christian inclinations towards escaping from the freedom of their own autonomous reason

This is a companion piece to Fromm’s Escape From Freedom. It is an analysis of fanatics – human beings that are compelled to join causes no matter what the cause.  By extension it is an investigation of mass movements from early Christianity up to Fascism and Communism.  This book is a cautionary against dangerous trends in the Zionist Enterprise (notice I use the term Enterprise and not Movement).  Fanatic selfless idealism – whether of right wing settlers or of leftwing social reformers is dangerous.  Their arrogant self-righteousness can justify corruption, breaking the law and horrendous crimes. 
As Hoffer puts it: “It is only when the movement has passed its active stage and solidified into a pattern of stable institutions that individual liberty has a chance to emerge”. In the Jewish context we are not post-Zionist we are post Zionist Movement and well into the Zionist Enterprise.  I celebrate the maturing of Zionism from a Movement into an Enterprise.  The so called solidarity of the past stifled individual self-actualization. Today the Zionist Enterprise offers many opportunities to individuals to actualize themselves as human beings and as Jews. I believe this is admirable and not to be regretted. The Optimistic Jew reflects this view.

The back page of Capra’s book contains the following:  “We have reached a time of dramatic and potentially dangerous change, a turning point for the planet as a whole.  We need a new vision of reality, one that allows the forces transforming our world to flow together as a positive movement for social change.” The book was written before the fall of the Soviet Union and European Communism, before the advent of the Internet Revolution, and before the rise of international stateless terror.  Much of what seemed exotic at the time – alternative wellness treatment, alternative energy, and environmental concern – has since become mainstream. Other problems he presents as potentially catastrophic have become obsolete because of the productivity potential of the Internet and the knowledge economy.
Yet the above quote is still relevant as an apt description of our present world and the book can still be read with benefit by the inquisitive and concerned world citizen.

This was the first book that made me realize that GNP figures include traffic accidents, natural catastrophes (like hurricanes) etc. as positive growth additions. In other words the costs incurred cleaning up the devastation of Katrina added to economic growth figures.  Once I became self-employed and could analyze what economists were saying, I realized that most of them live in an idealized Platonic universe and not in the actual, economic reality of real human beings.  Economic growth is based on innovation. Innovation is based on cultural values, constitutional protections and human imagination.
Henderson’s insight have made me suspicious of economists whose theories contradict common sense (e.g. if you had one teacher per 20 students and now have one teacher per 40 students you have doubled teacher productivity).  They have also made me suspicious of social reformers who similarly believe that increased education and health budgets will solve our problems. What is needed is the imaginative and innovative rethinking of the entire social welfare issue. 

The second book of Toffler’s trilogy covers much of the same ground as Capra but in a more journalistic and accessible style. Its greatest contribution to modern thought is the powerful metaphor of its title. The Third Wave concept was a metaphor that gave me insight into what had been troubling me about the Jewish condition in general and Zionism in particular. The Jews are a Third Wave people functioning within Second Wave political, ideological and organizational structures.  This was the coherent organizing principle of my analysis of the Jewish people in The Optimistic Jew.

This final volume of Toffler's trilogy argues that the control of knowledge has become the principal means to create wealth and power. In a way, the book predicted the productivity explosion of the 90’s and the birth of the knowledge economy even before the “invention” of the www.  His arguments about the growing conflict between the flexibility required by the knowledge economy and the inherent inflexibility of bureaucratic structures were a natural continuation of his Third Wave vs. Second Wave mentality: “…all bureaucracies discourage out-of-frame thinking and the examination of root premises.” This book, along with The Third Wave, provides useful methodological metaphors for critically analyzing 21st century Jewish life and proposing alternative Jewish futures based on the opportunities of globalization.