Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

In his novel Ishmael, Daniel Quinn discusses the destruction and salvation of the world. By way of a newspaper ad, an unnamed narrator meets a telepathic gorilla, named Ishmael, who had put up the ad to find a pupil with a desire to save the world. Spurred by his benefactor’s obsession with Nazi Germany, Ishmael imparts on the narrator what he knows best: captivity (Quinn 24). Ishmael claims humans of what are considered civilized cultures are captives of a story that keeps the world captive. This large group, Ishmael calls “Takers,” while everyone else—usually hunter-gatherers of “primitive” cultures—Ishmael calls “Leavers” (Quinn 39). In order to save the world, Ishmael believes Takers need to be freed from the story they are enacting and return to a Leaver-lifestyle. Although he may seem romanticize hunter-gatherers and seem to be urging modern society to become foragers, I feel we can convert and are converting to a Leaver-lifestyle without necessarily becoming hunter-gatherers.

According to Ishmael, Takers are captives of a story that compels them to enact (Quinn 37). The story begins with the premise that the world was created for humanity, an idea humans didn’t become aware of till they abandoned nomadic, hunter-gatherer life to settle and become agriculturalists (68). Because the world belonged to them, humanity’s destiny was then to rule and bring order to the chaotic world, but because the world wouldn’t submit, they turned to conquering it (225). However, “… given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered … one day, inevitably, their foe will be bleeding to death at their feet …” (Quinn 84).

Leavers have also been enacting a story—one that Ishmael claims gave rise to the birth of humanity...

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...cing our carbon footprint (Why is Urban Agriculture important?).

In developed nations, where education and birth control is available for most of the population, birth rates decrease. Families may choose to have fewer children as they have little fear their children won’t grow into adulthood or that there aren’t enough working hands to feed the family. As a result, population growth may be approaching an inflection point—possibly going from exponential to logarithmic growth and slowing the rate of deforestation in the long run. It may not seem like a revolution, but I think it’s progress. Furthermore, Korgen and White note a growing population of Americans urging the government to become a role model for other nations (91). Doesn’t this sound like the Leavers’ version of humanity’s destiny—that is, teaching others a lifestyle that wouldn’t destroy the world?