Mankind’s experiment with “Civilization” – (The Gods Must be Crazy Discussion)

When looking at human history scientifically and if the modern human species began at roughly 80-100 thousand years, then most of our history was that of hunters and gatherers. It is in fact the agriculture revolution of 10,000 years ago that brought about the change of behavior and man ceased to be at the mercy of the land, but began to adapt his land to him (which eventually evolved to tons then cities of ever growing complexity as described in the first part of the film).

I wouldn’t say that I am an environmentalist, as I feel that we have to take the needs of mankind above that of lets say a plant. Even the most harden environmentalist would eat an endangered species if he was suffering from hunger, it the survival instinct we all have. Having said that we “civilized” cultures are more harmful and many times unnecessarily so to the environments we “occupy”. I once read a book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, which examines mythology, its effect on ethics, and how that relates to sustainability. In the book Ishmael a gorilla in captivity who can communicate telepathically, discusses his learning experience from the wild and into captivity explaining that what he teaches him will be captivity, being the captivity of man under a system that forces him to exploit and destroy the world in order to live.

Before teaching the student he defines key terms in his culture study:

· Takers: "civilized people" Primarily the culture born in an Agricultural Revolution
· Leavers: people of all other cultures; sometimes referred to as "primitive.”
· Story: as an interrelation between the gods, man, and the Earth, with a beginning, middle, and end.
· Enact: is to strive to make a story come true.
· Culture: as a people who are enacting a story.

The difference in Leavers from the Takers is that they (the Leavers) may compete for their needs to the full extent of their capabilities, but may not hunt down competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. They compete but they do not wage War. Going on to say that all species inevitably follow this law, or as a consequence they go extinct. However, the Takers believe themselves to be exempt from this Law and flout it at every point. The Takers are taught to believe themselves to be at the highest point of the evolutionary pole. Who believe the earth was made for them, while many Leavers share this belief what separates its interpretation is that Takers create rules to turn this world into a paradise and their failure to do so leaves them to believe they are fundamentally flawed thus sin is born. Ishmael rebuts this belief of the flaw of man explaining that:

"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact, in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now."

Ishmael also believes that a modern society doesn’t have to be Taker, but that a civilization such as this has never existed. I believe the analysis Quinn wrote was spot on the historical and environmental impact of Taker cultures. However, I don’t believe that all the negative connotations he associates with it can be changed or are in fact bad things to begin with.