The Cloud Atlas

I have come to the end of reading a book called ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell (author not comedian), which consists of a six interlocking stories set in dates spanning from the 19th century to a post apocalyptic future. For a while I have been trying to rationalise the key message behind the book, and I think I have cracked it. Mitchell uses the book to attack the ‘will to power’ argument many right wingers spout that states whoever wants power and has the means to achieve it has the right to power and should therefore get power. Mitchell highlights that this theory is greed and viciousness thinly disguised. Dominant races are dominant not because they are superior but because they were unscrupulous enough to take it. He uses his time travelling narrative to show how this twisted counter purpose evolutionary trait leads to nothing but destruction. It all fits in with previous knowledge I held that a person who wants to be a leader is the very person who would be worst at leading. I myself feel a yearning for power which had previously troubled me, yet I now understand that I want power not out of vainglory but to protect those who I love, those who I sympathise with and that which I hold dear. I have always been painfully aware of the fragile nature of all things, and wish desperately for the means to protect.The book ends by establishing that if we believe the world is a lost cause, we give up on it and through self fulfilling prophesy we make it worse. Mitchell ends with the words ‘what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?’. Wise words.