Boomeritis

Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free is a 2002 novel by the philosopher Ken Wilber. Boomeritis, according to Wilber, is the deadly combination of a modern, liberal, egalitarian worldview and a deep unquestioned narcissism.

The protagonist, who is named "Ken Wilber", is a brilliant MIT student studying artificial intelligence. Ken believes that the future of evolution includes the departure of human consciousness from the physical realm, or "meatspace", and the merging of human intelligence with cyberspace.

Ken attends a series of lectures at an institution called the "Integral Center", which guide him towards a more expansive understanding of evolution and existence. These lectures are interposed with explicit descriptions of Ken's sexual fantasies with another character, Chloe.

Ken Wilber (the author) intended the novel to exhibit the traits of extreme post-modernism — irony, self-reference, noetic flatness — and thus to function as a literary reductio ad absurdum, assisting people, especially Babyboomers, in overcoming the post-modern mentality.

"Boomeritis" is also a term that Wilber uses to describe a pathological state of consciousness that particularly afflicts Baby Boomers. Boomeritis is characterized by relativism, narcissism, and an aversion to hierarchy.

External links

Published reviews

• "Boomeritis & Me: Not Just a Book Review" by Elizabeth Debold, What is Enlightenment? Issue 22 (Fall-Winter 2002)
• "Philosophy, yes, but as a novel, no" by James Lough, The Denver Post, September 22, 2002
• "Boomeritis" by Don Lattin, The San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 2002

Posted critiques

• Lower Versus Higher Energies: A Critique of Boomeritis by Patricia Herron
• Boomeritis or Bust... by Chris Cowan, August 24, 2002
• Twenty Boomeritis Blunders by Jim Andrews, November 15, 2005

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