Carl’s Reviews > Ishmael > Status Update

Excited to hear your thoughts on this one!

Great book! Especially for its time. I can’t disagree that modern humans began a trajectory of destruction beginning with the Agricultural Revolution to our present day, and the enormous difference between hunter gatherer societies and the “Takers”. We blindly began down that path having no idea we were even on it, and have only recently had the maturity and wherewithal as a species to understand our impact on the biosphere and environment, ecosystems, etc. A lot of the myths he ascribes to the takers can be found especially amongst religious, conservatives and hardcore capitalists, but we’re all complicit, I participate in the destruction too! I don’t recall the book giving too many solutions for how we can we can turn ship and change course, as an entire society, since we’re going so hard in one direction. I guess his aim was to enlighten and open minds to understand our impact on Earth’s systems for those that may be more ignorant on the subject. And he went even deeper by suggesting that our myths lie at the heart of our destructive behavior, which I totally agree. At this point it’s not just our myths but our inertia going in one direction, and it’s all we know. We blindly went down a path for thousands of years, people were extremely dumb, there was a man named Jesus, then there was a proliferation of information through books and the internet, then we realized we’re fucked, but no one wanted to give up the creature comforts of modern day living 🤣.
From an ecological perspective, we’re a huge net negative. From my perspective; I have Beethoven, flights across the planet, Whole Foods, and live concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Human consciousness and creativity give the Universe a voice to marvel at itself and to contemplate its mysteries. The universe is complex and indifferent. We humans represent the most complex seedlings of the universe. Maybe all this sophisticated culture (and consequent destruction) is a silver lining for the Universe to reflect its beauty and complexity back on it, through us.

I’m not sure where I was going with all that and now my brain hurts. The book sheds light of our impact on the environment and ecosystem with clever analogies and I agree with pretty much everything. I had never considered that the story of Genesis was created by “leavers” telling a story about the “takers”. Makes sense. That author was ahead of his time. Great book! Thought provoking.

My reference to religious types, conservatives was that they outwardly believe in myths such as humans are the pinnacle and center of the Universe, and that we should dominate the Earth as opposed to live in harmony with nature. All of us in this takers society are complicit in the destruction of the biosphere, no matter your beliefs. All most of us can do is be the seed of change we want to see right where we are. Maybe humans story will be one of redemption and transformation, that we stumbled along the way but eventually harmonize our ingenuity with nature, making for a more interesting existence than if we never domesticated those first wild plants and seeds.

I think the universe was bored and somehow pushed for life, then pushed for intelligent life so it could reflect back on itself, then pushed for this next era of humanity, which is neither superior nor inferior, it just is. It was experiencing the Leavers for millions of years, and realized living in harmony is great and all but maybe the Universe wanted to experience its more chaotic, complex and beautiful side, it wanted to express these things through our complexity cultures, it wanted to experience pizza, Led Zeppelin and human flight, or maybe a dark dystopian cyberpunk world still in our future, and it knew it wouldn’t get this with the Leavers, so Earth had to take one for the team. Yes it comes with a big price tag. Destruction. Maybe we’re a mirror for the universe to look back on itself. So maybe humans, the Takers, were never wrong to begin with, since they were ignorant children blindly moving in a direction with destructive consequences, but now that we’re enlightened, we should change course if we want to have a brighter future for ourselves and all living things on this planet.

I hope some of that made any sense

I think one solution presented was for humans to help other species evolve. So perhaps a good starting point is realizing we are just an evolutionary step and our time here is fleeting?