After reading My Ishmael, it has come to mind that there are a few questions about things that don't make sense. In the history of our culture, we were told by Daniel that the ones deemed as the managers of the food decided to lock the food up. In this decision, they have abandoned the law that states that a tribe will do what is best for the tribe. What has made them do such a thing when this law has been tried, tested, and true for millions of years? Would they not realize their error and the detrimental effects this is causing the tribe? As well, after locking up the food, wouldn't the tribe come together as a whole to extinguish these efforts for the good of the tribe? Those who would be hired as guards would obviously be only part of the community that they would need to convince that this is a good way to work things. How could they convince a whole tribe, albeit a large tribe, that locking up their food is a wonderful idea without any resistance or tribal community? • Ishmael.org, the work & philosophy of Daniel Quinn

After reading My Ishmael, it has come to mind that there are a few questions about things that don’t make sense. In the history of our culture, we were told by Daniel that the ones deemed as the managers of the food decided to lock the food up. In this decision, they have abandoned the law that states that a tribe will do what is best for the tribe.

What has made them do such a thing when this law has been tried, tested, and true for millions of years? Would they not realize their error and the detrimental effects this is causing the tribe?

As well, after locking up the food, wouldn’t the tribe come together as a whole to extinguish these efforts for the good of the tribe? Those who would be hired as guards would obviously be only part of the community that they would need to convince that this is a good way to work things.

How could they convince a whole tribe, albeit a large tribe, that locking up their food is a wonderful idea without any resistance or tribal community?

The process by which our culture evolved from tribal villages to early hierarchical states occurred over many hundreds of years, by gradual degrees, not in a single generation. At each stage what was done seemed to make perfect sense, just as in the last two centuries it seemed to make sense to build ever more hungry petroleum-fueled machines that would eventually pollute the air, the land, and the sea.

At no point did it occur to everyone to sit down in a big circle and say, “Does what we’re doing make sense? Is going to be good for people in a thousand years?”—any more than it occurs to everyone to do that today.

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updated: 27 Aug 2004

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