Book - Ishmael
Read - 3/06
Reviewed - 5/06
What I Think Of It - This book appealed to my strongest desire, that of finding a meaningful purpose to my life which would include somehow changing the world for the better. The book changed my mind and perspective about a lot of things and gave me a new way to view the world. Initially right after reading the book and while reading it I was ready to save the world, listen to everything he had to say and spend every moment of my life pursuing the goals he set out. After I cautioned myself against it understanding the child-like excitement and automatic approval I have towards every new different idea the first time I hear it, I saw some of the downfalls of the book and his "save the world" plan. One of the things that is central to the research behind his book is the idea that there have been many other groups of people that have tried out civilization but realized it didn't make them happy and so willingly gave it up to return to a tribal lifestyle -- we on the other hand are the only civilization to stubborn to give it up. One of his main examples is the Maya a group of people whose "collapse" is the topic of my senior thesis. A popular and credible book Collapse by Jared Diamond looks not only at the Maya but many other civilizations and I don't think he ever comes to the conclusion that any of them just gave it up because they wanted to live a tribal lifestyle again. The Maya, for instance, probably collapsed because of a number of different factors they did not see coming (like environmental) and didn't desire their civilization to break-up. Another thing about the book is that Daniel Quinn (the author), tries to say that in the animal kingdom they all know their role and that the animal kingdom remains diverse and healthy because they accept when it is their time to die because they realize the other animals need to eat (them)....the problem with humans and our civilization is that we have tried to dominate over this natural way of things and refuse to play our role and succumb to nature's way of population control. The problem is that as it is said in the Minority Report, "...every creature on this earth is interested in one thing and one thing only. It's own survival." No animal just lays down and dies. The other thing is that it is sometimes hard for me even in my most cynically mindest to deny that their is nothing good that has come out of science, technology and civilization in general. Also if we were to give up our civilization and go into a tribal lifestyle I fear that the cat is already out of the bag on the power that can be achieved with civilization or with all the technology out there. Their are too many people that would take advantage of the weak state that everyone would be in and take us over and force us into being enslaved to a tyrannical dictator. With all those objections I still really like the book and at the end he comes back a little bit from the radicalisms I object to and said that we don't necessarily have to go back but we have to "invent" a new way of living. Also I still liked the book enough to buy his non-fiction work entitled Beyond Civilization.
Summary - The book starts out with a man responding to an add "Teacher seeks pupil: must have an earnest desire to save the world." The man finds out that this teacher is really a gorilla who has learned to communicate with humans (I think telepathically). The gorilla explains to his student that most humans have this cultural myth about them that includes them being the most important species and that they must take as much as they can. They are Takers. He interprets Adam and Eve the way that he thinks they meant the story which was different because they had a Leaver mentality. He explains that Man went wrong when he got the knowledge of the Gods by eating from the tree and found out that he could control which species lives and dies, with this idea that he can control it the balance of things which was kept in control by the Gods has been off since we are taking more than our fair share instead of being under the control of the Gods who treats every species equally. The gorilla goes onto explain that civilization which is the lifestyle of the takers can't work forever and isn't the best way to live. Eventually the gorilla isn't at the apartment that he had always been and the student has to go to a carnival and meet with him. The Gorilla eventually dies and we are left with the student remembering the poster in the apartment which read "Without man is their hope for the gorilla" and then "Without the gorilla is their hope for man." Which i believe says that Man needs the gorilla not only to show him how to live as one with nature and as a part of the world rather than trying to dominate it, but also man needs all other species because diversity is extremely important for sustainable life. Also if man doesn't survive and western civilization ends up collapsing is their hope for the gorilla or will the gorilla and all of earth go with it since we are slowly destroying the earth.
Reviewed - 5/06
What I Think Of It - This book appealed to my strongest desire, that of finding a meaningful purpose to my life which would include somehow changing the world for the better. The book changed my mind and perspective about a lot of things and gave me a new way to view the world. Initially right after reading the book and while reading it I was ready to save the world, listen to everything he had to say and spend every moment of my life pursuing the goals he set out. After I cautioned myself against it understanding the child-like excitement and automatic approval I have towards every new different idea the first time I hear it, I saw some of the downfalls of the book and his "save the world" plan. One of the things that is central to the research behind his book is the idea that there have been many other groups of people that have tried out civilization but realized it didn't make them happy and so willingly gave it up to return to a tribal lifestyle -- we on the other hand are the only civilization to stubborn to give it up. One of his main examples is the Maya a group of people whose "collapse" is the topic of my senior thesis. A popular and credible book Collapse by Jared Diamond looks not only at the Maya but many other civilizations and I don't think he ever comes to the conclusion that any of them just gave it up because they wanted to live a tribal lifestyle again. The Maya, for instance, probably collapsed because of a number of different factors they did not see coming (like environmental) and didn't desire their civilization to break-up. Another thing about the book is that Daniel Quinn (the author), tries to say that in the animal kingdom they all know their role and that the animal kingdom remains diverse and healthy because they accept when it is their time to die because they realize the other animals need to eat (them)....the problem with humans and our civilization is that we have tried to dominate over this natural way of things and refuse to play our role and succumb to nature's way of population control. The problem is that as it is said in the Minority Report, "...every creature on this earth is interested in one thing and one thing only. It's own survival." No animal just lays down and dies. The other thing is that it is sometimes hard for me even in my most cynically mindest to deny that their is nothing good that has come out of science, technology and civilization in general. Also if we were to give up our civilization and go into a tribal lifestyle I fear that the cat is already out of the bag on the power that can be achieved with civilization or with all the technology out there. Their are too many people that would take advantage of the weak state that everyone would be in and take us over and force us into being enslaved to a tyrannical dictator. With all those objections I still really like the book and at the end he comes back a little bit from the radicalisms I object to and said that we don't necessarily have to go back but we have to "invent" a new way of living. Also I still liked the book enough to buy his non-fiction work entitled Beyond Civilization.
Summary - The book starts out with a man responding to an add "Teacher seeks pupil: must have an earnest desire to save the world." The man finds out that this teacher is really a gorilla who has learned to communicate with humans (I think telepathically). The gorilla explains to his student that most humans have this cultural myth about them that includes them being the most important species and that they must take as much as they can. They are Takers. He interprets Adam and Eve the way that he thinks they meant the story which was different because they had a Leaver mentality. He explains that Man went wrong when he got the knowledge of the Gods by eating from the tree and found out that he could control which species lives and dies, with this idea that he can control it the balance of things which was kept in control by the Gods has been off since we are taking more than our fair share instead of being under the control of the Gods who treats every species equally. The gorilla goes onto explain that civilization which is the lifestyle of the takers can't work forever and isn't the best way to live. Eventually the gorilla isn't at the apartment that he had always been and the student has to go to a carnival and meet with him. The Gorilla eventually dies and we are left with the student remembering the poster in the apartment which read "Without man is their hope for the gorilla" and then "Without the gorilla is their hope for man." Which i believe says that Man needs the gorilla not only to show him how to live as one with nature and as a part of the world rather than trying to dominate it, but also man needs all other species because diversity is extremely important for sustainable life. Also if man doesn't survive and western civilization ends up collapsing is their hope for the gorilla or will the gorilla and all of earth go with it since we are slowly destroying the earth.
posted by Bradley Marshall Wissmueller at 11:52 AM
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