The Takers and the Leavers

The following discussion is about the book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

Quinn says Ishmael is a story about hope. "I think we have a much finer and more exciting destiny than conquering and ruling the world," he says.
Daniel Quinn on Ishmael

"The premise of the Leaver story is that man belongs to the world. Right from the beginning, everything that ever lived belonged to the world — and that's how things came to be this way in the Leaver culture. The single cell creatures that swarm in the ancient ocean belonged to the world, and because they did, everything that followed came into being. Those club-finned fish off shore of the continents belonged to the world and because they did, the amphibians eventually came into being; and because the amphibians belonged to the world, the reptiles eventually came into being; and because the reptiles belonged to the world, the mammals eventually came into being; and because the mammals belonged to the world, the primates came into being; and eventually man as we know him today came into being. That is the way the Leavers lived for three million years — as if they belonged to the world. Under this premise, creation goes on forever. Each species has the opportunity to evolve to whatever state possible.

There are several significant things the Takers do that are never done in the rest of the community of life. Ishmael explains that these are all fundamental to the Takers' civilization system. First, they eliminate their competitors, which is something that never happens in the wild. In the wild, animals will defend their territories and their kills and they may invade their competitor's territories and preempt their kills, but they never hunt competitors down just to destroy them, the way some ranchers and farmers do with coyotes and foxes. Generally, in the wild when animals hunt, they eat. When aimals go hunting, it is to obtain food, not to exterminate competitors or even animals that prey on them. Second, the Takers systematically destroy their competitors' food to make room for their own. This does not occur in the natural community, where the rule is take what you need and leave the rest alone. Third, the Takers deny their competitors' access to food. In contrast, in the wild you may deny your competitors' access to what you are eating, but you may not deny them access to food in general. The lion may say, "This gazelle is mine," but he doesn't say, 'All the gazelles are mine.'"
Wise Ishmael

My spin on this: animals and humans are the same - animals probably do most of these things, or would if they had the chance. People aren't trying to be evil - we're just too successful. We simply need to exercise our reason, take a look around us and crank it down a notch or two. It's time.