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The Right Way to Live: Ishmaels in Quinn Novel
Contacts for help:dorineadalyn@gmail.com
Socratic dialogue seeks to impacts student’s reasoning by enabling them to distinguish
between what they know and that they assume. The narrator argues that humans can only live by
the law they have set for themselves rather the natural order. Using flight as metaphor, Ishmael
shows the narrator how people should live and gravity as symbol of the law. However, there is a
need to regard and accept the laws before one can start applying them. Contrary to Ishmael
opinion, mother culture teaches Takers culture to dismiss the old ways in favor of modern ways.
Thus leading to amnesia in the newly adopted culture. This essay aims at exploring the question
of raised by Ishmael in the novel Quinn regarding the right way to live.
For Ismael, the only right way to live is to approach the despair directly rather than
seeking answers objectively, this is when human can progress. The same way that agriculture
erred by forcing itself to humanity, humanity have erred by assuming that one answer could
apply to everyone. Ishmael argues that because of human inherent flows, it will be hard for
people find peace and paradise. This is because human have flows of stupidity, greed,
shortsightedness and destructiveness. Ishmael say that human could harmoniously live in the
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world if stories that encourage them were told to them from generation to generation. Contrary,
the modern takes story which see the world as an enemy that should be attacked. It encourages
people to treat the world with greed, stupidity and destructiveness. Thus destroying the world
until it is completely devoured. Ishmael ask the prophet why takers often want the prophet to
provide the laws on how to live. In this regard, he argues that Taker mythology there’s
something fundamentally wrong with humans and there lack of knowledge on how live. Ishmael
suggest that if people could find way of live, there could be no destruction of the world.
Fundamentally, the loss of man shows that man does not know how to live. Quinn thus suggest
that the right way to live is return back to the culture of the world before man conquered the
world; that is the paradise. For Ishmael, by assuming that the predicament of man are natural,
human have created the flows and thus human must acknowledge the truth before they could
start changing it.
People should endeavor to change the notion that our socials changes come from our
disconnection from nature, the belief that the purpose of humanity is to dominate nature and
make it subservient to humanity. Without knowing the consequences of this kind of believe has
become cancerous. Thus Ishmael implies that the right way to live despite changes in the culture
is to alter the genetic code by adopting better means of living, those that were there before
agriculture rather than toying with basic of evolutionary process. Ishmael argues contrary to the
human assumption that evolution ended with the coming of humans. Instead, he implies that
people should acknowledge that they are the best chapter of evolution and thus should assume
that the story ended with us. People are really outlaws as they are surviving outside than natural
laws (Senge 1).
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Quinn in his argument dismantle the notion that the world is lost without man. However,
this information are presentation as though the world was something new, something which
Quinine disregard. Quinn’s implies that the as narrator we all understand the truth already that
there is a mother culture. Instead, people blindly accept the history that has been presented to us.
According to Quinn, all intelligent life adheres to the voice of the mother culture. However,
problem with this assertion is that the human culture keeps on telling him that you are part of the
evolution. Because of the mother cultures voice, people violate the one natural way of living
which human being should adhere to. “Take what you need and leave the rest, you human being
have violated the laws ever since agriculture and surplus production sprung (Lienhard 1).
Ishmael argues that Genesis is the oral was the nomadic pre-agricultural Semites and this was a
warning that natural laws was being violated, however, Israelite focused on being made in God’s
image when they adopted genesis” according to Ishmael, believing that you are the end of
evolution, it marks the end of one’s self by defeating other species leading to the extinction and
thus ignore the law. He emphases that humanity should just take what they need. Any attempt to
do contrary will lead human extinction by ignoring the natural laws of gravity.
Ishmael has a problem with one culture ruling the world “What do can people do” should
people go back to the hunting and gathering ways? They will say no and the Gorilla will respond
you miss the point. In this regard, Ishmael attempt to argue that we should drop the mother
culture that attaches ourselves to technology and agriculture because this leads to the terror of
extinction. According to Ishmael, it is this one culture that leads to the destruction of the world
because our culture, whose main objective is devour everything, has the purpose of production
and growth and the only target is the forest and life (animals, and plants that occupies). It work
on ensuring that everything is finished including itself. This is the same culture that is passed to
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all generations. The Gorilla, is a symbol of entirety of what is being controlled by mankind. By
Ishmael becoming the teacher and the student the teacher, Quinn’s revers the association of
dominance that has featured mankind approach to nature thus enabling human to see the right
way to live. Also, by questioning man to pause our belief that mankind can talk to gorilla, in as
sense, Ishmael metaphorically challenges the belief that people different from other species.
Ishmael has raised a public paradox concerning human culture and how people should
live with it. He implies that there is no human that alter culture by himself. For Ismael, the only
right way to live is to approach the despair directly rather than seeking answers objectively, this
is when human can progress. Ishmael suggest that if people could infinity way of live, there
could be no destruction of the world. Human cause of extinction is because of greed,
shortsightedness, and stupidity that has pervaded human consciousness, and if human can reverse
their way of thinking and look at life before agriculture, people will get their paradise. The
Takers and Leaver’s conflict does not solve anything regarding human law and the best way to
live. Ishmael attempts to imply that if people could rethink the Taker perspective of life, they
will find the right way to live.
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Works Cited
Lienhard H, John. Ishmael. Engines of Our Ingenuity. (2020). P.1 Retrieved from:
https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi979.htm
Senge, Peter. Ishmael” Cultural; Dialogue. Systems Thinker. (2020). P.1 Retrieved from:
https://thesystemsthinker.com/ishmael-cultural-dialogue/
