Learning How to Fly 2
The Promised Land for a Humanity Unwilling to Leave the Nest
Promoting a unique hybrid governance model, the political philosophy text Learning to Fly 2 marshals the strengths of diverse traditions into one coherent structure.
Veteran Michael Stansfield’s structured, expansive philosophical treatise Learning How to Fly 2 ponders how religion, philosophy, and politics might converge to foster a more humane society.
The book proposes a vision of democracy that transcends national borders and that could be embraced equally by every culture. To advance this ideal, it refines the core framework of the Square, which identifies four foundational systems for any government: moralism, humanism, socialism, and capitalism. Arguing that none of the components suffices on its own, the book synthesizes the four, its work informed by select philosophical principles.
In promoting hybrid governance, the book works to marshal the strengths of diverse traditions into one coherent structure. A full section is dedicated to each pillar of the square, covering an astonishing range of topics, including Arthurian knights, British royalty, US security agencies, the evolution of interpersonal relationships, and biblical courts. The result is a text that is bold but unwieldy, rooting an amalgamated governance model in Christian-inflected spirituality but impeded by extensive historical asides and philosophical tangents. In addition, the dearth of sourcing undermines its overall argument, and its long discursions to cover pet topics, like the shifting alliances of US political parties, are too narrow to be convincing.
However, the book’s arguments are personalized by commentary on how the Square model influenced Stansfield’s own life, with notes on how faith guided him through military service and how philosophical debates shaped his family relationships. While these personal vignettes are clear and sympathetic, illustrating the Square theory in real-world terms, they also reflect the book’s overarching tonal inconsistencies. At times, it reads like a memoir; at others, it aims to be received as a textbook. Further, the syllabus or summary that appears at the end of the volume is its most concise and cogent section, distilling the Square’s principles into direct terms in a way that the previous text did not.
The book’s verbosity also works against its central thesis. Lengthy digressions, coupled with repetitive recapitulations of earlier chapters, blur the intended message. The book’s format compounds these issues. It proceeds in a stream of long, uninterrupted paragraphs and makes minimal use of subheadings. The lack of visual separation between its ideas muddles its points. The conversational tone also lacks authority, and errors with homophones and punctuation are distracting.
Learning How to Fly 2 is an earnest political philosophy text that promotes modes of governance that prioritize spirituality and human dignity.
Reviewed by
John M. Murray
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
