Uncommon Sense - Reviews and Endorsements

"Fun to read. Lots of good sense - seen nothing I disagree with!"
Arthur C. Clarke - sci-fi visionary, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

"I thought that I was crazy until I read your book"
Martin, Brighton artist

"It is a good easy read, with someone thinking behind it. Your theme - the balance between chaos and order - is the Big One, certainly for politics and how we live.
You put your finger on the situation, clarify it...make readers see how things are changing and how much there is to hope for."
John Michell - author and pioneering author on earth energies and sacred geometry

"It's like a breath of fresh air - this is a very important book"
Stu, editor of Dream Creation

"I'm loving your book, and it's absolutely brilliant for breast-feeding"
(a reference to the short, easily digested chapters)
Anna, eco-warrior - mother of Honesty

"I absolutely loved the book - it made me laugh, it made me think,
it's absolutely wonderful."
Countess Kraskaya, artist

I've heard lots of positive comments about "Uncommon Sense", and bumped into several people who have been quite evangelical about it (without prompting:-). Actually I must add on a personal note that it did wonders for my relationship with my father, who's a hardcore Friedmanite libertarian who I've never been able to talk to about politics without arguing. I gave him a copy and he not only agreed with everything in it but it also shook him out of that typical (but totally illogical) rut of associating libertarianism with puritanism - and thus with 'moral' control. It made him see that drugs, ecology, grass-roots protest and all those other 'left' things he never liked were actually part of his programme. I also learnt, in turn, that the libertarian right are not the real enemy (something we all got conditioned to think growing up under Thatcher).
So, many thanks - Mike
Mike Jay, author "High Society"

"One of the most essential and thought provoking books of time"
Rocklands - music online zine at lovepeacemusic good call, good humour, good intention, good read - if you enjoy books and thinking, then this is the goods. "Uncommon Sense (The State Is Out Of Date)" by Gregory Sams is a book that every single person who has ever had an idea should read because it makes obvious sense with added good humour. I devoured it and bought a couple for some friends. It’s easy and interesting to read and if you’re like just about every thoughtful person that I’ve ever met at gigs you’ve probably got a lot of the same attitude in you.

Proudhon, Kropotkin, the syndacalists vs. Marx - and the search for SOMA, the sacred psychedelic of the ancients. WHAT HAS ALL THIS got to do with Uncommon Sense??? - CLICK HERE and find out.

CADUCEUS Magazine review:

Surely by now Greg Sams counts as one of the heroes of our time, a sort of jesting British Donga version of Noam Chomsky. If not, then his new magnum opus Uncommon Sense (echoing Tom Paine's libertarian classic Common Sense) must nominate him for the award. The alternate title The State Is Out Of Date, tells its subject in outline, but to get the rich mix within you have to devour it at a sitting.

In a wheelchair for most of his life but nothing daunted, Gregory helped to pioneer the natural food revolution in Britain, opening Seed macrobiotic restaurant at 18, Ceres wholegrain shop in the Portobello Rd two years later in 1967, and what is now Whole Earth Foods soon after that. Also an active ecowarrior, he is a veteran of countless "fluffy" actions against the vandals of the state machine and their cohorts in big business. Out of his more recent love affair with the burgeoning metaphysic of Chaos Theory came his current business, Strange Attractions, and the insights expressed in Uncommon Sense.

Gregory has always been a passionate pamphleteer, tilting with humanity and humour at the lunatic windmills which litter the modern world (Is the wheel chair called Rocinante? - it should be!). His style in the book reflects this...Yet true to his Chaotic muse, he draws on a common thread through the essays, leading to deep - and profoundly optimistic - insights. Briefly, he sees the universe as a live, naturally harmonious thing organising high levels of order and interaction through the agency of Chaos. As in the cosmos so on planet Earth, at least until Gaia's little local difficulty of homo sapiens sapiens blew up. But this book can bolster your faith that ultimately our sapience will lead us to clear up our mess and then invent better ways of being within our Mother's hegemony. If you love liberty, mistrust the state - and hate its iniquitious taxes! - and if you still hope for the future, Greg has something to tickle your funny bone.

Review by Richard Williams
CADUCEUS MAGAZINE in Sept 1998

"In a part of my life, I suddenly found myself lost, with no direction, asking to me...
Who am I? What am I doing here? Do I have a meaning in life? Disoriented, confused, empty. Then came your book, I read it with no rush, digesting and savouring every part of it with great pleasure. It woke up wonderful thoughts, feelings and emotions in me.
By the end, I've realised that I had a new joy in living. Your book gave me a good push. Thank you." - A.O.