The sibling society

In his international bestseller. Iron John, Robert Ely explored the wisdom embedded in a thousand-year-old fairy-tale. Now, in The Sibling Society, Bly turns to stories as unexpected as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Hindu tale of Canesha to illustrate and illuminate the troubled soul of western society itself. What he shows us is a culture where adults remain children, and where children have no desire to become adults - a society of squabbling siblings. In this sibling culture that Ely describes, we tolerate no one above us and have no concern for anyone below us. Like sullen teenagers we live in our peer group, glancing from side to side, rather than upwards, for direction. We have brought down all forms of hierarchy because hierarchy is based on power, often abused. Yet with that levelling we have also destroyed any willingness to look up or down. Without that 'vertical gaze', as Bly calls it, we have no longing for the good, no deep understanding of evil. We shy away from great triumphs and deep sorrow. What we are left with is . spiritual flatness. The talk show replaces family. Instead of art we have the Internet. In the place of community we have the shopping centre. Bly's probing is deeper and more unsetding than the usual cultural criticism. He finds that our economy's stimulation of adolescent envy and greed has changed us fundamentally. The Superego that once demanded high standards in our work and in our ethics no longer demands that we be good but merely 'famous', bathed in the warm glow of superficial attention. Driven by this insatiable need, and with no guidance towards the discipline required for genuine accomplishment, our young people are defeated before they begin. It is the young and the disenfranchised who' are most victimized by the sibling culture. In a phrase common to the ancient stories Ely uses to illustrate his themes, it is these people whom we all too easily 'throw out the window', but it is also these disenfranchised who will be waiting for us on the road ahead to claim their due. A call to action, an inspiration, brilliantly original, The Sibling Society will capture the imagination of its readers and enliven our cultural debate.