What Does Ishmael Say About The Nature Of Mankind

The Fall of Mankind as We Know It

Sustainability is the ability to be maintained at certain rate level usually associated with the environment. In modern works of literature, the ideology of sustainability is predominantly not emphasized upon by writers enough. As the today's generation begins to venture out into the world, the principle of sustainability must be taught throughout the world because of the number of resources and pollution that man currently is using and inflicting upon the environment there might not be another generation left. In Ishmael, Daniel Quinn writes about the moral ethics that has driven the civilization of mankind and the ideology of sustainability Quinn uses the character of Ishmael to teach and inform the readers

the ideology of mankind's origins, ways of life, and where man went wrong. Quinn focuses on two themes that are prevalent in the novel which are the culture of leavers and takers and the Tree of Knowledge. Is

The culture of leavers and takers is prevalent throughout the novel. Ishmael separates mankind into two categories of leavers and takers. Ishmael lays down a foundation to his student by defining the following as leavers are defined as being individuals who tend to live a primitive way of life, and takers are defined as being individuals who tend to live a civilized way of life. The culture of leavers thrived on their way of life for thousands of years. However, the Neolithic Revolution is what initiated the transition between the two ways of life. Mankind had understood that they no longer need to live a nomadic way of life which would prevent them from moving place to place in search of food and could simply grow their food in one place. The Neolithic Revolution occurred about 23000 years ago and since then humans have looked back and evolved in becoming the most civilized creatures on this planet. Ishmael teaches his pupil that taker culture has gradually expanded throughout the world because humans believe that it fundamentally works and right when he says, "Mother Culture teaches you that this is as it should be. Except for a few thousand savages scattered here and there, all the peoples of the earth are now enacting this story"(39).

This theme of the culture of leavers and takers goes hand and hand with the ideology of sustainability in that the way of life that takers pursue is not sustainable. The number of resources that man currently uses exceeds what nature can provide on a natural basis. Resources will run out if man continues this way. Takers cannot live to believe that we have infinite amount resources available to us. With 7 billion people living on this planet, the environment begins to become exhausted in providing resources. With the population booming throughout the world especially in Asian countries such as China and India, scientist have predicted that by 2050 the human population may be too big to feed. Not only that, research conducted shows that since 1971, takers use more resources that the environment can produce in a year before the year ends. Thus, humans are using resources that the future generation needs. One would argue that it might be time to go back to the primitive ways of ancestors. However, we are not able to and don’t want to. Leaver culture functioned effectively because the population at that period of time was relatively small and they didn’t know that there was another way of life that they could resort to until the Neolithic Revolution. In today's society, humans do not want to resort to the ways of life that our ancestors lived by because we know that we can simply grow food. However, we do go back to the leaver culture, the majority of the population would certainly not survive the new way of life. One can argue that because the majority of the population will die out due to the ne\ew way of life, we can live the life of the leavers.

The Tree of Knowledge is another theme that is prevalent throughout the novel.

Ishmael proposes divergent story of Genesis that a Jew or Christian is usually familiar with. Ishmael denies that the Tree of Knowledge ever possessed the knowledge of good or evil and that humans were permitted from eating the fruit from it. The gods that had created the world were also in charge in determining who lived or died. However, the gods argued with each other to determine who lived or die. They came up with the resolution that they should not involve themselves in the natural succession of life through the food web because animals would curse the gods for what they have done. The Tree of Knowledge was never limited to humans to test their self-control. It was used by the gods to manipulate mankind. Once Adam ate the fruit, he believed that he had the knowledge of good and evil. However, he only had taken the responsibility of deciding which species died and life through the way of life. Thus, it enabled the fall of

mankind.

The story of the Tree of Knowledge connects with the ideology of sustainability in that it depicts that mankind has failed its responsibility to bear not only the natural succession of life but simply the stewardship that he was once entitled to. Takers are those individuals that live on the principle of good and evil they received from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge while leavers live by the hands of the gods. Ishmael says that takers believe in the ideology that "the world belongs to man" while as leavers live by ideology that "man belongs to the world". Because of mankind thought he had the responsibility to bear who lived and died and how-to-live, man has completely destroyed our environment. Therefore, man is on its own verge of downfall as well.

Daniel Quinn writes about the moral ethics that has driven the civilization of mankind and the ideology of sustainability through the theme of the culture of leavers and takers and the Tree of Knowledge.

Mankind simply has failed to do what he was entitled to do which was to be a steward of the earth. Man has developed a way of life that is completely not sustainable. The amount resources man uses completely depicts that future generations will not have any and there is a possibility that there might not be a generation after all if we continue to do so. Ishmael instantly became one of the most influential books on my mentality that I have ever read because it gave me a different outlook on the way that we live life. Society tells us that it right and just and there is nothing to worry about when we need to. It is time that we take on our roles to enforce sustainability. This generation is the only hope that we have because past generations have failed as well. We are one step closer to the end of it. I would recommend that anyone looking to practice to enforce sustainability read Ishmael because it is a must. We can either work to enforce sustainability or we have another option that firmly many do not agree with. We can believe in Elon Musk the greatest entrepreneur of our time. Elon firmly believes in sustainability, but damn knows for a fact that humans will never practice sustainable ways of life. Before the amount of resources run out, it is good time to go to Mars.

Musk and SpaceX plan to have cargo sent to Mars by 2022 which will confirm that water resources exist and other stuff. In 2024, Musk plans to send a crew to Mars to begin our colonization on another planet because our time is up on earth.