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Then Ishmael pauses—takes a deep breath and says, TAKERS & LEAVERS.
TAKERS & LEAVERS! One sees nature and land as something that must be
named, tagged, classified and controlled. Their advanced
consciousness is killing them and they don’t know it. The other
group sees that there’s mutuality between human, plant and animal.
There is a major difference in each group’s earth-view.
Well, Ishmael sounds like he doesn’t like the takers too much, but
he makes it clear that he sees takers & leavers as neither good nor
bad but just what IS. He feels that somewhere there was a split in
human consciousness where some chose to cultivate while others did
not. And by virtue of what cultivating does, we have a society that
seeks to expand at any cost, and Ishmael feels this will eventually
end when our culture has expanded as far as we can. So the truth we
cannot handle, Ishmael believes, is our culture, as it exists today,
is doomed; not the earth or even all humanity (those who are not
takers (leavers) he contends will live on long after we’re gone) but
our culture, will somehow annihilate itself through its
aggressiveness. That’s a hard word from Daniel Quinn. And although
it is fiction, he is passionate in all of his books, in revealing
this as his myth of what will happen to our society.
This is where I break with the author. As I’ve said before, I do not
eat the entire pie of anyone’s ideology. Just a few slices here and
there. Perhaps Mother Culture blinds me too, but I still maintain a
positive outlook on life for our culture. I am ever hopeful that
humanity can find away to embrace life with more respect and
reverence.
Ishmael says to us in substance: FIND A BETTER WAY TO LIVE. That’s
it!! We’ve must find a more efficient way to feed the hungry without
creating explosive populations that will doom our culture. We’ve
gotta find a way to redefine capitalism, not a system of “survival
of the slickest” that preaches “Grow, grow, grow,” but as a system
that embraces a philosophy of sharing, mutuality and reciprocity.
Ishmael reveals to us that we cannot have another generation that
grows up believing that conquering and domination and tyranny is
good. So we’ve got a great task of redefining the myths of our
existence. The myths that say God gave humankind power to organize
the earth; that there are chosen people or races; that there is one
country that is greater than another; that strength is in military
might and not in love and charity and community; that killing is
right and TAKING is good. These are some of the things mother
culture whispers to us everyday and if we are not intuitive, we can
lose our chance to save the world.
Oh yes, I am ever optimistic that we can save the world. I still
believe human beings can find a way, in spite of ourselves, to raise
our collective consciousness and be more responsible, individually
and collectively. We must begin to take on a new attitude that
understands that we are not separate from nature but a part of the
great circle of life. Therefore, life calls us to respect the
circle. We are not the master’s of the earth, the earth is our
master! We have to see that the plant, tree, insect, animal help us
to live, and they must be respected, their habitat must be honored,
as we honor each other. It seems too late for us to fix this worldly
mess in such a postmodern society. But I submit, we have no choice
but to slow down a very abusive process. Now, we don’t know the
long-term effects of what we do, but all I know is I want my
children to have a great world to live in. I don’t want them to see
the hate that is so prevalent in so many places. I want their
fantasy of life to be real. I don’t want them to grow up believing
that lying and cheating is the only way to succeed. For me, this
compels me to “keep on keepin’ on.” I hope you feel the same. So, as
Martin King said, “we can make of this old world a new world.”
Mr. Daniel Quinn is attempting, I think, to give us a wake-up call
this morning. Our story concludes when our character goes back to
visit the gorilla and cannot find him. He discovers that Ishmael may
be gone or dead. He takes some keepsakes with him. One of them is a
poster. Another day, sometime later, he decides to get it framed and
discovers writing on the back of the poster. You are familiar with
what the front says: WITH MAN GONE WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR GORILLA?”
But on the back there is a different message: “WITH GORILLA GONE,
WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?”
Thank you for your time. And thank you Daniel Quinn for your
message.
Let it be so!
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