Blog 2- Ishmael Discussion

My group and I mainly discussed how we thought Ismael was correct in his thinking that the others in society, the leavers and takers, were just using Earth as a crutch, and taking all of its resources for granted. From our discussion one of the bugger themes that sparked interest in me was the question: "Is Ishmael right to think of humanity in terms of Takers and Leavers?". As a group, we came to the conclusion that yes, Ismael was somewhat right in his interpretation of society as Takers and/or Leavers. One of my group members Gigi mentioned how historically there have always been takers and leavers in society. Mainly we as people tend to be more self-centered, "taking" what benefits us and leaving the environment and the things left around us without a second thought. Takers then undoubtedly leave thinking they have helped, put back the pieces with some restorative projects, and preservative measures but in reality what has been done, more often than not cannot be undone in a sense. Ishmael idea's on Taker and Leaver cultures can also be linked to another theme sked in the discussion questions: Is Ishmael right that Taker culture leads to depressed, drug-addicted humans with problems we wouldn’t have if we lived “closer” to nature? As a group, we came to the conclusion that a taker's way of life could possibly be linked to a more depressing lifestyle. A taker's individualistic and more industrialized way of life can lead to people becoming stuck in a 9-5 way of life, where aspects of elevated industry life are upheld more than enjoying what is around you. Examples of these trends can be seen today where people get stuck in their workflow and become overwhelmed and left to their own thoughts. I'd also like to bring up something that our group said Ishmael might've gotten wrong. My group member CJ stated that Ishmael believed that only takers hunt down their subsequent prey for the satisfaction of killing them, but bringing up the commonalities of extinction we know this is not true. Taking this into account our group also thought that not all tragedies of the Earth can be credited to taker culture, however, most can. To conclude this post I think Ismael really made some good points with his ideas throughout our first reading of the story, and I can't wait to finish this reading!

Meeting Logistics: 

Thurs, Sept 1st~ 09/01/22

5:00-5:40ish pm

Group participants: Gigi Dezcalzi, CJ Dierking, Kalan Gianni Dixon (Me)