How is ishmael a captive

Thus begins Ishmael, a compelling exploration of our shared assumptions about the world. You know it well; everyone in your culture knows it well…. A pragmatic view of systems thinking is that it is a body of tools and methodology for solving difficult, highly interdependent problems. But ultimately it is about expanding our worldview.

The book Ishmael speaks to this deeper purpose. I believe that the larger environmental crisis that threatens us cannot be averted without profound changes in the predominant patterns of thinking and interacting within our institutions. This shift in orientation—from objects and events to interrelationships—must infiltrate broadly and deeply if it is to start to have a real cultural impact. Ishmael is one way to begin that shift. The late physicist David Bohm, a leading thinker about dialogue, believed that human beings began to lose their capacity for thinking together long ago.

He believed that the progressive fragmentation of the social order that started with the agricultural revolution has led to a progressive fragmentation of thought, which has increasingly characterized the last 10, years of human civilization. The work begun by those Neolithic farmers in the Near East has been carried forward from one generation to the next without a single break, right into the present moment. According to Ishmael, our current social problems stem from our disconnection from nature that began with the agricultural revolution—the belief that our job is to dominate nature and make it subservient to our will.

Over the past years, the consequences of that belief have become increasingly severe as we have developed the power to implement this perspective on a global scale. Beyond the obvious impact on the global environment, we now have the ability to alter the genetic code. As Ishmael points out, we human beings are the first species in the history of evolution on this planet that systematically destroy other species.

In essence, we are toying with the basics of the evolutionary process. Underlying these actions is a belief that evolution ended with the appearance of humans.

Instead of acknowledging that we are just the latest chapter in an ongoing story, we humans think the story ended with us. This assumption has set us, in our minds, outside of the evolutionary process. Evolution may indeed end with us, or at least the evolution of our species. Although he was captured and sold to a zoo as a young gorilla, Ishmael does not seek to teach about the captivity behind bars, but one of a more subtle and far-reaching nature.

Each of you contributes daily to the destruction of the world. Ishmael, having spent his life in captivity, has learned to question captivity; thus, he tries to teach his captors humans what he's learned about them through his studies. Through his research on human history, he's come to see that they, too, are captive to a destructive way of life in their pursuit of domination over the rest of the world. Through his studies, Ishmael tries to understand why humans feel called to dominate the world, and he teaches the explanation he's come up with to his student the narrator.

Ishmael speaks as a symbol of the sentience and intelligence of the rest of the world's life-forms that humans at least humans in the "Taker" cultures — that is, basically everyone except for tribal cultures have dismissed, because they see themselves as superior and removed from the rules that structure the evolution and survival of other life-forms on the planet. Previous Book Summary. Quinn essentially denounces prophets, claiming that they enforce arbitrary laws on how to live.

By providing definitive models for life, prophets allow humans to ignore the more important laws, which are provided by nature. Religion gives humans license to do whatever they please with the world, blaming the gods for any natural problems. This approach is also reflected in Ishmael's treatment of the Genesis origin stories, which he considers allegories for the more important conflict between Taker and Leaver societies.

Philanthropy is another controversial topic in Ishmael , especially as it relates to hunger and starvation around the world. Instead of moving food to feed starving populations, those populations should be moved to where the food is.

Otherwise, they will continue to reproduce and create more starving individuals. Implicitly, Ishmael criticizes mis-considered philanthropy as another means through which Mother Culture enslaves us and distracts us from the more important questions. Quinn debates the assumption that man is fundamentally flawed. Most religions attest that man is an imperfect being, but Quinn argues that these beliefs are simply justifications for our destructive behavior.

On the contrary, he believes that man's fundamental flaw is simply that we do not realize how we "ought to live," even though the answer is clearly provided by nature. His implicit point is that man is capable of living in harmony with the Earth, provided we take responsibility for our own treatment of it.

Quinn argues against the idea of human supremacy on the planet. Humans, he claims, are the most evolutionarily advanced species on Earth, yet they are not entitled by nature to rule all other species. By stressing the supremacy of humans, Mother Culture enables the behavior that is causing the Earth's imminent destruction. As counterpoint, Quinn argues that humans should afford other species the opportunity to evolve and develop, possibly to the point of self-awareness. Quinn argues that the need for agriculture and modern civilization is egregiously overvalued.

The new tribalists use the term "tribalism" not in its widely-used derogatory sense, but to refer to what they see as the defining characteristics of tribal life: an open, egalitarian, classless and cooperative community. For Ishmael, facilitating such a world requires us to first recognize that life before civilization was not a constant struggle for survival, but rather a harmonious co-dependence between all life.