Ishmael - Chapters 5 - 8

Shakespeare is especially fond of fatal flaws. Next time you enjoy
a Shakespearean tragedy, try playing this game of bingo.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming with Ishmael. These few chapters expand on the mythology of "how things came to be this way". Ishmael speaks to the narrator about the idea that humans are fundamentally flawed and therefore incapable of living in harmony with the world. This idea is all over the place, fatal flaws are a key point in most tragedies of antiquity, as well as a lot of modern media. Oedipus is too headstrong and doesn't know when to stop, Macbeth is blinded by his lust for power, Anakin Skywalker is too arrogant an unable to let go of things he cares about, Voldemort is too prideful, incapable of love, and terrified of death, even Elsa from Frozen is frightened of her own powers and therefore herself.

But, as Ishmael argues, there is, in fact, nothing inherently wrong with people. The problem lies in the story we've chosen to enact. It's put us in conflict with the world, made the world our enemy, and now we're heralding victory over the enemy while the world dies in front of us. Speaking of enemies, this is a very human way of looking at things. We are not at war with the planet, we are not embroiled in a feud with the planet, there are no Montagues and Capulets in this story. 

Come on folks, take responsibility.

We live on this planet, just like everything else here. We don't exist above other species, nor do other species exist above one another. For some reason we project the human characteristics of violence onto other animals, calling the owl and the snake enemies when they're just living as they're meant to. For humans, anything that isn't useful to us is completely useless. If we can't eat it, or if it doesn't feed what we eat, we get rid of it. How can we be so presumptuous to define what things on Earth matter and which don't? How completely awful of us. We've made this mess, we need to fix it.

On the bright side, Ishmael is pointing to some solutions. Limiting population growth by evenly distributing resources for example. We produce way more food than we need, but people still go hungry. Read more about that here. 

That's all for now.

Write to you soon.

Danielle K.