Ishmael Ch. 3 & 4

 Chapters 3 and 4 of Ishmael are largely about the myth of creation, and how humans have been taught and conditioned to view the world as our property; we view ourselves as the center of all creation. I particularly enjoyed when they were talking about how our viewing of the world as our property leads to us abusing it and doing whatever we please with it. To view the issue in these terms is eye-opening. And it explains a little bit of a discussion we were having in class the other day. A classmate and I discussed how we grew up in conservative towns, where remarks about climate change were either "See look! It's freezing today, climate change isn't real!" or "What a beautiful sunny day! I'm glad that climate change is happening!" Which is essentially what the book is getting at in this section--the mindset is that it's our Earth, we control it; who cares if we change the weather? Life will go on.

I have to say, I'm tiring a little bit of the formula of the conversations between teacher and pupil: A-B, A-B, A-B. Ishmael will say something prophetic, insightful, and wise, and ask a question of his pupil. The response will be complete ignorance of what Ishmael is trying to say, and then asking him to explain. I do wish that Quinn deviated from this formula a little more than he does. That being said, the prophetic sayings of Ishmael are all incredibly thought-provoking, and I do enjoy them. I just tire of his pupil being continuously in the dark as to what he's getting at.

In chapter 4 Ishmael asks his pupil to provide the middle and end to the creation myth that humans believe, and helps him to discover the second core belief of our mythology: That man is made to rule Earth. I find this theorizing helpful in understanding the psychology of why so very little has been done to lessen our damage to our own environment, which is something we've been discussing in class quite frequently.

A time I felt "part of" and not "above" nature. Taken in New Zealand.

Ishmael's last statement summarizes what climate change means for Earth "mankind [is] the enemy of the world." The idea of nature overpowering humanity, which he touches on earlier ("What man built up, the wind and rain tore down. The fields he cleared for his crops and his villages, the jungle fought to reclaim") though terrifying, is honestly kind of awesome. And I think understanding that we are a part of nature, as opposed to the ruler of it, is where the cure for our society's environmental abuse lies.