If you are wondering why we are in such a mess on our planet and society and why we got to this point , please read this book , it is really good. .... Ishmael is a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn. It examines the mythological thinking at the heart of modern civilization, its effect on ethics, and how this relates to sustainability and societal collapse on the global scale. The novel uses a style of Socratic dialogue to deconstruct the notion that humans are the pinnacle of biological evolution. It posits that anthropocentrism and several other widely accepted modern ideas are actually cultural myths and that global civilization is enacting these myths with catastrophic consequences. Before proceeding Ishmael lays some ground definitions for his student. He defines: Takers as people often referred to as civilized. Particularly, the culture born in an Agricultural Revolution that began about 10,000 years ago in the Near East; this is the culture of Ishmaels pupil and, presumably, the reader. Leavers as people of all other cultures; often derogatorily referred to by Takers as primitive. A story as an interrelation between the gods, man, and the earth, with a beginning, middle, and end. To enact is to strive to make a story come true. A culture is a people who are enacting a story. Ishmael proceeds to tease from his pupil the premises of the story (i.e. myth) being enacted by the Takers: that they are the pinnacle of evolution, that the world was made for man, and that man is here to conquer and rule the world. This rule is meant to bring about a paradise, as man increases his mastery of the world, however, he is always failing because he is flawed. Man doesnt know how to live and never will because that knowledge is unobtainable. So, however hard he labors to save the world, he is just going to go on defiling and spoiling it. Ishmael points out to his student that when the Takers decided there is something fundamentally wrong with humans, they took as evidence only their own cultures history- They were looking at a half of one-percent of the evidence taken from a single culture-- Not a reasonable sample on which to base such a sweeping conclusion. Ishmael says: Theres nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now. Ishmael goes on to help his student discover that, contrary to what the Takers think, there are immutable laws that life is subject to and it is possible to discern them by studying the biological community. Together, Ishmael and his student identify one set of survival strategies which appear to be evolutionarily stable for all species (later dubbed the Law of Limited Competition): In short, you may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war. All species inevitably follow this law, or as a consequence go extinct. The Takers believe themselves to be exempt from this Law and flout it at every point..................... Here is the entire book in 13 chapters. you can read online or download each chapter.. A very worthwhile book to read if you feel things are not right in our society anymore and the history of why... web.archive.org/web/20091027073244/geocities/friendofishmael/ishmael/index.html
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:56:59 +0000
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