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    Introduction

    The author of this book is an intellectual, originally trained in

    science, who decided to avoid the limitations of an academic career.

    Instead of conducting laboratory experiments and competing for federal

    grant dollars, he put his interest in mass human behavior to work by

    playing a key role in the careers of rock stars such as Michael Jackson

    and John Cougar Mellencamp.  Meanwhile, he continued to read widely

    and do what all scientists, as intellectuals, should do; attempt to

    understand and explain the nature of the world around him. His

    experience "at the center of our culture's myth-making machinery" may

    have taught him more about human nature than a university career.

    Perhaps we should regard him as an anthropologist who has spent

    many years observing a strange tribe--us.

    In the course of his inquiry, Howard Bloom became convinced that

    evolution could explain the fundamentals of human nature and the

    broad sweep of human history.  He is not alone.  It is no longer heretical

    to study our own species as one of evolution's creations, and many

    books are appearing on the subject.  However, The Lucifer Principle does

    not merely report on the rapid developments that are taking place

    within academia.  Howard Bloom has his own vision of evolution and

    human nature that many scientific authorities would dispute.  He is a

    heretic among former heretics.

    The bone of contention is the organismic nature of human society.

    Thomas Hobbes and many others of his time regarded individuals as the

    cells and organs of a giant social organism--a Leviathan--"which is but

    an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural,

    for whose protection and defence it was intended."  Today this idea is

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