Ishmael Ch 10-13

Firsts I want to say that I can relate to how to narrator feels, when it came to him not being able to speak with Ishmael for a week or so. My best friend currently runs track at Hillsdale and our schedules have been so busy lately that we've had no time to actually hold a real conversation. Not having that ability to even just talk about something completely random for hours makes you think back and miss the days where you could. Its especially hard when you and the other person have the same mind set and share a lot of the same views. Much like Ishmael my friend Nate and I have talked about things more in depth about our world and society. Including, religion and how the universe came to its current state.

Back on the topic of the chapters. I found it eye opening when Ishmael and the narrator agreed that leavers have based their lives around the trial and error of their ancestors of millions of years, while the takers on the other hand base their lives off of thousands of years of experience. Takers also refute the past as much as possible and continue to look forward. In doing this we as a society forget to look down and fail to see the consequences of our actions in the moment. We tend to notice the consequences when it is much too late.

I hadn't really remember much of the plains Indians and wanted to see if they truly made the transition "backwards" when switching from agriculture to hunter-gatherer. Here's a link with a description of their lives before the horse and after the horse. Once they discovered horses, they made the transition to hunter-gather due to the increase in mobility. However, this transition cause many issues. Among these issues is tribal warfare, with their increased mobility they were constantly bumping into other tribes.

An extremely eye opening section was when Ishmael asked the narrator if he was homeless would he hit a button to go back to the time of the hunter-gatherers. When the narrator responded with no, it made me realize that our society is so stuck in their ways that many would rather live miserable lives as a taker than live a life as a leaver. And Ishmael pointed this out to the narrator, stating that "mother culture" has done well convincing him he'd rather be a taker than a leaver for no knowledgeable reason.



Another section that got my attention was the part when the narrator and Ishmael spoke of being civilized. Ishmael became very upset when it came to our society looking at leavers as "uncivilized" which is exactly how our society views most leavers today. I feel its how our society views anyone and anything that we don't understand their ways of life. Our society for the most part views the same way of the leavers as animals. Many animals are intelligent creatures, but we don't understand their ways of life. so, most just label them as dumb or uncivilized. Which is sad to say, because we should put the effort in to try and understand those that we find "different". Their ways going about things honestly can be better than our current ways. We should always be looking for ways to improve ourselves. (Maybe that's just the engineer coming out of me) The comparison between our society and prison is scary, because of how true it is. No matter how rich or powerful you are we are all stuck in this society. There is no escape. We all have to do our time one way or another until our sentence is over.

Ishmael Ch 9

When the narrator walked into the room for his regular meeting with Ishmael he is unsure of how to feel when Ishmael is on his side of the glass. Even though he at this point should know that Ishmael is not going to hurt him and he has had many talks there is something different talking to someone with a barrier and without a barrier. I compare this to talking to someone online or over text. Speaking for myself, there are some people that I'm just more comfortable talking to over the phone or another electronic way than in person. With that barrier you only see the emotion the other person wants you to see. They can mute themselves verbally or over text send laughing emojis when they are really crying. This is the problem with our generation. We are moving to electronic interaction rather than face to face confrontations. There are many arguments that start as text messages. With a text message you put your own twist on the others words and a majority of the time that twist is in a negative light. Removing that barrier may feel weird at first, but it's still the same person. It removes any confusion, because you get to hear how they intended it to be heard. You can't put your own twist on it when it comes right from the source. I feel this is why the narrator was uneasy when he saw Ishmael on the other side of the glass. Even though they'd had conversations together there was always something keeping them separated. Something keeping each other separate from one another and maybe its in a more literal sense. Where the narrator saw Ishmael as more of a reflection of himself and now that can no longer be the case.

Ishmael Chapters 5-8

My fraternity (ATO) has reasoning behind the choice in its letters. The Alpha (A) and the Omega (O) stand for the beginning and end being bound together by the cross (T). Much like the narrator realizes the beginning and end of civilization is mankind. When civilization was first created we all were unaware of the negative impact we had upon the planet. And now we as a civilization we are so stuck in our ways that we refuse to change our habits or for some even acknowledge our impact on the planet.  We just continue to conquer nature.

The analogy between our future and the past involving the wright brothers gave a lot of insight. The only certain in our situation is that there are no certainties. The Wright brothers had little knowledge of what would work and what would fail. So, they found out on their own. Much like their designs, our future is going to be filled with trial and error. We are the trend setters. We have to fight the current if we want to continue swimming.

The narrator sees the basic layout of how life should be. Once this is pointed out he realizes that our civilization is truly depressing. So depressing he tries to suppress how he feels by drinking it away (Terrible idea). He realizes that he doesn't want someone there to guide him for the few short weeks he has with Ishmael,, but for his life. I understand where he's coming from when it comes to being guided. Our lives would be so much simpler and less depressing if there was someone always there to tell us what we need to do. To tell us right from wrong.

Walden Readings 2/15

We've probably all heard our parents say that we're all "special" in our own ways. Its a saying that we've heard all of our lives, but have brushed it off. If you truly look at everything in nature there are no two things alike. They may be similar, but nothing is identical. With that said, no words can describe nature. We can try our best and some words and phrases can get close, but nothing can quite fit. Pictures are not even capable of capturing the beauty of nature. Nature strikes emotion into you that words just can't. Watching a sunset for example is a breath taking experience and every time you experience it it is different. A video or a picture of the sunset just doesn't strike that same emotion as experiencing it first hand.

Much like Thoreau discovered with the pond. The deepest part of a person is the middle of their behavior and circumstances. Much like ponds we as humans are defined by what is around us. Its all dependent upon how we grow up, how our parents raised us, how we act when we're faced with adversity. This goes the same for everything in nature. There is more to everything than the physical characteristics. As busy as we are we tend to forget this. We make judgments on everything thing in our lives based off of how they look. Yes, we sometimes take the time to learn what's on the inside, but its not as common as it should be.

Thoreau mentions forgetting old grudges. I personally have a hard time letting grudges go, but in the past when I have and attempted to make amends it was much worse than keeping the grudge. I have personally yet to find someone that was worth letting the grudge go. However, I can see the benefits of not holding grudges. I just haven't associated myself with the people worth dropping a grudge. Along with grudges, he mentions wisdom comes with age. The man he was speaking with he states he himself will never be as wise as that man. I feel that we as individuals never see our gradual changes. We will all get to that point in life. That point where you have so many experiences that you have a story for any situation.

 In the words of Frankie Ballard "How am I ever gonna get to be old and wise if I ain't ever young and crazy". Young and Crazy by Frankie Ballard

Walden Readings 2/13

Walden states that true richness is in living things alone. This is one of the more true statements I've read or heard in a while. Most people in our society today find beauty in buildings or cars, but we need to appreciate the beauty of nature. The Earth isn't our canvas to paint what we want with it.






Most people travel afar to escape from things. In "Where I lived and what I lived for"  he states that he escape closer to "home" than most. When you go out into nature and you succumb to it you forget all of the things you had found important. You realize those things truly don't matter. They only matter because our society puts such an emphasis on them. When it comes to the big picture of nature nothing society puts emphasis on truly matters. No one needs to have a large house or an extremely expensive car, but society forces people to want these. The celebrities have them. I want to have them. Much like what was stated we confuse the appearance of things with reality. Reality is nature was meant to be conserved not conquered. We need to realize, much like what McKibben said in Eaarth we need to change our ways. We can't continue to live as though we are living on Earth. We're on a new planet. We need to adapt and change out ways to try and keep what we have left.

We need to also learn that we don't need some of the things that we have. We can be perfectly fine living in the middle of the foods without a "house". We always want bigger and better than the next guy, but we forget that there's always someone with less than we have. We can no longer take anything we have for granted. This includes our planet. We are losing touch with nature and so we are conquering it. Constantly expanding when we can't even feed our entire population.

Ishmael Ch 3-4

Our society is a myth. No matter if people see it or not it doesn't make that statement any less valid. Mankind believes the Earth was created for them. That the world will end with the end of mankind. That's why what has happened to the Earth has happened. We believe that the world was made for us. If it was made for us then there is nothing we can do to hurt it. Why would it be made for us if our actions have consequences behind them? I'd compare our society today of that of ancient Greece. Looking back on it their ideals of gods etc is what we call mythology today. Looking back on this time thousands of years from now, what is keeping future societies from calling this period and our ideals mythological as well?

The tension between the narrator and Ishmael was very noticeable at the beginning of the chapter as it is in most relationships where you're not seeing eye to eye. However, as the chapter progressed the narrator began to see from Ishmael's eyes. The narrator began to see mankind as Ishmael saw mankind. As a cancer to the Earth. Mankind having the feeling the Earth was made for them allowed them to do with it what they want. Ishmael has the narrator picture the Earth without mankind. The narrator pictures it from space and tells Ishmael that he wouldn't want to see it from the surface. He was afraid to picture it from the surface.

Eaarth Ch 4

From the very beginning chapter 4 sets the tone for the chapter. "Cullers...opens his farm for a giant industry-sponsored field day each fall so other farmers can see his secrets, most of which involve incredible amounts of chemistry and petroleum". We as a society see developing our tools only as positives. We sometimes don't always see the downsides to developing tractors and other tools. Cullers and the giant agriculture businesses see the huge GPS driven tractor and 

the pesticides helping increase our food surplus. While in the mean time our food surplus has actually continually decreased. 

Not only is our surplus of food decreasing, but the amount of energy it takes to produce each crop is constantly increasing. This increase in energy needed to harvest crops directly increases the amount of fossil fuels consumed. "It takes ten calories of fossil energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food". The harvesting of the food, transportation and the preservation of the food all requires. The food industry is becoming dominated by the large companies.

Alternatives to help cut down on the energy cost for these crops would be to buy local. Going to the local farmers market or buying directly from individuals farmers will help cut down on the fosil fuel consumption. Another alternative would be to create an individual or community garden. That way you save fuel consumption from harvesting and transporting. Community gardens also help bring the community together and could potentially help feed those in the community less fortunate. 

Ishmael Ch 1-2

I don't really know where to start when talking about this book. I loved every word Quinn put onto the page. Eaarth made me concerned about the planet and how we physically hurt it. Ishmael focuses on the mentality of the human race and how we all live in captivity. I related to this book on a personal level. I've had days where I feel lost. Days that I just go through the motions. Getting through the day just so I can start the next day.

Quinn wrote "where animals are simply pinned up, they are almost always more thoughtful than their cousins in the wild". This is due to the fact that the animals have more time to contemplate. They may not realize that they're not happy with their lives, but they know there is more to life than just being stuck in a cage. We are like these animals. The only difference is that we cage ourselves. We hold the key to our cage and yet we throw it away. We'd much rather go through the motions, follow the script of our story instead of  improvising. Instead we play the role that we feel was assigned to us. 

When Ismael told the narrator to think back to ancient times of mythology. How we today see mythology as a story. Something that's not real, but feels real in the moment. It truly is how our society works. We live in the moment and look into the past with disbelief. Our ideas of what is real and what is a story is sometimes a very fine line.