Ishmael

Gotta love life-changing books. I have read a couple already. And I look forward to more.

I can't say that anything that I've read has really changed my life, but some books have life-changing ideas, if only I were able to act them out.

Trying to fit the image of the smart, teacher's pet type student for most of my childhood, I always claimed reading as a favorite activity of mine. In reality however, I read a book for pleasure here and there- often I'd find a book I'd like and read it over and over again (I'm remember The Sword of Shannara right now), but other than that, I haven't read consistantly on my own since I outgrew Goosebumps in third grade. Well, I plan to change all that. I've kind of set up my own little curriculum of books to read along the same theme. What started me off was actually two books suggested by my foreman at my former place of employment. In the course of my two months working with him, he learned of my desire to study philosophy and to "save the world." In response, he suggested a book that would help me see why I shouldn't study philosophy and a book to show me why I shouldn't try to save the world. The latter point came up with a discussion about why I'm vegetarian. As I gave my reasons, I realized that I really wasn't sure anymore. I hadn't thought about it seriously for a while. But basically, if there's a reason to be vegetarian out there, it's probably part of my personal philosophy. The particular reason he contested was the one where if we took all the food we grow just to feed the large numbers of factory-farmed animals and gave it to the starving of the world, this would end world hunger. The problem he had with this seeming no-brainer was this: if we (the first world) feed the starving people in africa, they will have enough life in them to produce a lot more kids, who would then be starving. More food than before would need to be allocated for an even larger population of hungry people. The people will always be starving, but we are keeping them alive just enough to allow them to create more starving people. So I suppose his solution, as heartless as it sounds, is to let them starve. I had trouble swallowing this when he gave this rebuttal. I have always thought of human life as worthy of the highest dignity and most protection. Why is that? This is where Ishmael comes in.

I'm angry. I'm angry at our culture. And I'm angry at myself. We as a society are destroying the world. We are systematically limiting diversity (and moving towards Sameness, as another book, The Giver, would call it) because it is most economically efficient to do so. As humans, we believe that we are the height of creation, the height of evolution. Now if you even think about that second part for a little bit, you'll see our error. Evolution is an ongoing process. There is no end to it. But we want there to be an end to it, because we believe that we are the end, that the world belongs to us, and that we can use the world however we want. The world does not belong to us. We are a part of the world. This is not to deny our intelligence and corresponding ability to take care of the world. Humans did not always act like this. It has only been a fraction of our time in existence on this planet that we have caused this much damage. Our problems began as soon as we moved from a society that lived off the fruit of the land without working to produce it (hunter/gatherers) (which sounds a lot like the Garden of Eden to me) to farmers and shepherds who own the land, own the food, and fight everyone and everything to keep it that way (and to keep getting more and more land and more and more food). The motive for this, of course was the security of a surplus, so that when the land did not provide enough one year, humans could still survive (because human life is of ultimate value, of course). In effect, we wanted to take control of the forces of life and death (namely food) away from nature (and God). We wanted to be our own gods and ensure our own immortality. But instead, we have ensured our own (and the rest of the world's) destruction. The second creation story in the bible makes so much more sense when seen from this perspective.

So this is the problem (or a very simplified version). I don't have an answer. That's why I'm still reading (as opposed to doing something about it). And I may not find an answer that really satisfies me. We can't go backward. We have to go forward. But not in this way. We can't continue what we are doing. We have to start something completely new. That requires creativity. And generally, I think more minds working on a problem can come up with more creative solutions. So if I piqued your interest, I recommend reading Daniel Quinn's book(s), and maybe we can begin to stop contributing to the destruction of our very life support system in little ways right away. Anything that denys diversity (if it's not obvious by now, capitalism is in direct opposition to diversity, so not spending as much money is a wonderful start).