Hello again everyone, sorry I've been afk! I need to buy a new computer monitor, but in the meantime, I've found a copy of the book that is more friendly to mobile devices.
I've uploaded it to my personal site. It's in ePub, but you can use Calibre to convert it to Mobi if you prefer that.
(There's another book on that page but you can ignore that for now)
"for now"
Lol! A future selection for the book club?
I enjoyed
Jenny Odell's talk at the XOXO Festival in 2019, and it made me even more curious about her book. It sounds fascinating.
Quote from
the book:
"That's right. If you read it as a story that originated among your own cultural ancestors, it's incomprehensible. It only begins to make sense when you realize that it originated among the enemies of your cultural ancestors."
Sharing is caring.
Sharing the knowledge.
Sharing the experience.
Trust when in darkness.
Listen when in the light.
I read
Ishmael over the past couple of days...Wow! Beautiful. It really makes me want to read Daniel Quinn's other works now.
I think it gets very close to the general principles that were probably intended by the book of Genesis, but there is so much that could be elaborated upon or reiterated in different ways. I will add some comments here. Although, what I would like to convey is a little tricky to describe in brief, so it might seem strange. Please feel free to ignore all of this if it is not of interest to you. [As always, the links are just there for reference / context. They are not necessarily full endorsements.]...
Rooting Out The Corruption At The Beginning of Human CivilizationsSome intriguing patterns arise when attempting to probe
the connection between human evolution, social structures, and philosophical teachings within the oldest societies on Earth. For example: When looking carefully at the history of Egypt, it seems quite plausible that there were
advanced civilizations that existed long before any records that we have now, but which steadily declined until they completely collapsed.
It might make one question if humans really did go through some kind of biblical "Fall". And if so, was it due to
a cyclical process, an unfolding punctuated by several cataclysms? Was it due to human errors? Or perhaps, it was some combination of both (e.g.: severe natural disasters leading to extensive loss of knowledge, and thus choices made in ignorance and desperation)?
The first five
books of the bible (which includes Genesis) are attributed to Moses, who is said to have grown up among the royalty of ancient Egypt. Whatever the details behind their authorship, the idea that the earliest humans had once lived within an idyllic "Garden of Eden" is worth careful consideration. Let's explore this concept a little bit...
Imagine growing up within a lush forest and being so deeply connected to the environment that you were capable of intuitively picking out edible plants without necessarily learning how to
forage, or that you got along so well with all of the animals there that they would regularly come up to you unafraid. You constantly move with the rhythms of the days and seasons. It is like being in communion with everything around you, a "Oneness," with nothing strongly divided into "self" and "other". Maybe parts of
The Fertile Crescent (the so-called "cradle of civilization") were like this within the very remote past?
Now imagine that a changing atmosphere started to lead to ecological collapse within that area. How is the mind affected when suddenly and violently confronted with the concept of survival?
"The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" is a symbol for something that arose within the "Garden of Eden". I had once heard an interpretation of that symbol that I found fascinating. I believe it was attributed to the theologian/activist
Walter Wink [author of the series of books
Naming The Powers,
Unmasking The Powers,
Engaging The Powers,
When The Powers Fall, and
The Powers That Be].
Essentially, the "knowledge of good and evil" was the ability to label some things as "good" and others as "evil". In turn, that led to moralistic judgements, the concept of some being "deserving" of punishment and others of reward. It creates a foundation for the concept of hierarchy, and eventually turns into what he refers to as a "domination system". To quote
an interesting article about this topic by Duen Hsi Yen (with some slight editing by me):
Daniel Quinn puts a lot of this in a similar way (e.g.: "the knowledge of good and evil" is the idea that a person is capable of deciding "who should live and who should die"). There are many concepts that are intertwined here. Let's tease out some of the details...
Inequalities Based On Apparent DifferencesWhen one divides "self" from "other" and starts seeing some as "more" and "less", then it can lead to all sorts of prejudices.
Two that probably arose immediately out of that ancient division were "sexism" (in the sense of sex/gender inequality founded on objectification) and "tribalism" (in the sense of small warring factions competing for the same "resources"). The idea of "
chattel slavery" closely followed, but
the concept of "race" was invented later, as nation-states grew and "slave trade" became "international". "Imperialism" and "colonialism" are the same kinds of patterns at larger scales and they are justified by the same types of ideologies (e.g.: "imperial cults", "divine right to rule", etc.).
Some of the works related to the field of "Gender Studies" lay out these patterns pretty well. To give a few examples:
* Daniel Quinn mentions Riane Eisler's
The Chalice & The Blade [
Summary]
* In the #Books channel on the Yesterweb Discord, Madness had mentioned Gerda Lerner's
The Creation of Patriarchy [
Summary]
* Another really interesting one is Peggy Reeves Sanday's
Female Power and Male Dominance [
Summary]
Such inequalities are rooted in personal language and perception. For that reason, they might seem intractable, but they can be resolved to the extent that people can dialogue with one another. Learning about the experiences of others can expand one's point of view and increase empathy.
Inequalities Based On Differing Skills & TechnologiesAs technologies develop and knowledge becomes more specialized,
people often organize into systems that follow the same types of hierarchies. The open sharing of knowledge, especially how to build or invent your own technologies, helps to break that pattern.
Daniel Quinn mentions both "agriculturalists" (i.e.: those who plant crops) and "pastoralists" (i.e.: those that herd grazing animals). The thing that they have in common is "domestication" (i.e.: control over plant and animal reproduction for human purposes). In some instances, it can quite literally be thought of as a form of slavery and/or genocide (like in the modern era, there are "factory farms", "patented seeds", etc.).
However, it is possible to do agriculture in a way that is respectful to plants, animals, and the environment in general. There were
ancient peoples who practiced something like this too.
Inequalities Based On Abstractions (Like "Wealth" & "Status")Currency of any kind is worthless, but people try to use it as:
1. a "medium of exchange" (i.e.: something traded for "goods and services")
2. a "form of identification" (i.e.: a representation of what someone "has" or "does")
It is a technology that does not scale, and it will quickly fail to fulfill either of those functions if we try. One of the reasons for that is because it is a symbol which is easily mistaken for the things which people attempt to symbolize through it.
Lewis Mumford offers a particularly clear explaination (italicized emphasis mine):
It is interesting to note that the ideas of "credit" and "debit" (and the entire concept of "banking" that arises out of that) is believed to have been
invented in ancient Babylon. If one has some patience, some interesting examples of how that system was abused can also be found within the bible. There is a reason why "
usury" (i.e.: the charging of "interest", using "money" itself to "make more money") is considered a "sin". It can become a form of enslavement.
SummarySome of the most divisive patterns in human thought can be traced back to the beginning of "civilization" in The Fertile Crescent, and one can see them repeat throughout history all around the world. For example:
Compare the appearance of "domestication" and "agriculture"...
...to the appearance of "industry" and "capitalism"...
[The above diagrams are from
this document.]
It may seem like it is so embedded within people's minds that it is inescapable, but that is only a habit. A more constructive way is possible if we take it step-by-step. There is so much more that could be said, but I will stop there for now.
Sorry to go on and on. I will now get back to
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I have recently updated
the helper page with the footnotes that were missing. More soon. Hope you all are doing well!