Leaver or Taker?

Some years ago I read a book that disturbed me. Well, what it disturbed (in retrospect) was some of the soporific cultural lies we are given to spread over the astonishingly destructive ways of thinking and living we call the "American Way".

Now the book itself was sort of a pain to read due to the style of writing (at least is was for me) but I stuck with it and if you haven't read the book I think you might be rewarded if you will tough it out and read it through. There is a possibility that the experience will move you into some different ways of thinking.....ways that are quite interesting. The book is titled Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.

...."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.".....(from a quote included in the wikipedia article re Ishmael)

Here is another excerpt from Ishmael:

You can’t say, ‘We’re going to change the way people behave toward the world, but we’re not going to change the way they think about the world or the way they think about divine intentions in the world or the way they think about the destiny of man.’ As long as the people of your culture are convinced that the world belongs to them and that their divinely-appointed destiny is to conquer and rule it, then they are of course going to go on acting the way they’ve been acting for the past ten thousand years. They’re going to go on treating the world as if it were a piece of human property and they’re going to go on conquering it as if it were an adversary. You can’t change these things with laws. You must change people’s minds. And you can’t just root out a harmful complex of ideas and leave a void behind; you have to give people something that is as meaningful as what they’ve lost – something that makes better sense than the old horror of Man Supreme, wiping out everything on this planet that doesn’t serve his needs directly or indirectly.” (Ishmael, p. 249)

Now at the time I read the book I hadn't awakened to the imperative of ethical veganism, I wasn't too far away but I wasn't there yet. The book itself isn't written from a vegan perspective but it definitely is written from a viewpoint that argues against the European notion (taken to the logical extreme by us folk that call ourselves Americans) that human animals are above, outside of or exempt from our planet, from nature and from the environment and that we can do anything we damn well please....with impunity....and we should do anything we damn well please and anybody that says different is either a fool, a traitor or a terrorist.

Now Mr. Quinn has written a number of other books, you can see a full bibliography over on the website associated with him. He has also posted online some of his essays and lectures. For instance this passage is from one of them.

"When the gods made the universe, they made it in such a way that all who have eyes to see can read the Law of Life in it. They wrote it in things, not in words, so that not only man but the snail and the mosquito and the rabbit could read it. This is why no man will ever succeed in framing the Law in words: it is too simple for words. Should you meet some skeptic who says to you, 'Where is this Law? I see no Law,' tell him to watch the wolf and the deer and the jackal and live as they do. These creatures see the Law and are following it, and there are no criminals among them. . . ..If you ask me on my last day, as I close my eyes for the last time, whether I know the Law of Life, I'll tell you: 'I'm beginning to know it.' If any man tells you he knows the whole of the Law of Life or that he can encompass it in words, that man is a fool or a liar, because the Law of Life is written in the universe and no man can know the whole of it. If ever you're in doubt about the Law, consult the caterpillar or the gull or the jackal; no man will ever know it better or follow it more steadfastly than they.""

One last quote from Quinn's writings:

As we go about our business of running the world, we have no doubt that we're doing as good a job as God, if not better. Obviously God put a lot of creatures in the world that are quite superfluous and even pernicious, and we're quite at liberty to get rid of them. We know where the rivers should run, where the swamps should be drained, where the forests should be razed, where the mountains should be leveled, where the plains should be scoured, where the rain should fall. To us, it's perfectly obvious that we have this knowledge.

If you aren't familiar with the writing of Daniel Quinn, you might want to become so. His writing served me well as I struggled toward being able to apprehend Donald Watson's message about ethical veganism. Living vegan isn't just about compassion (although that may be the most significant component), it also (for me) has to do with our (our including all living things) place in the world.  Not that I know or anything.....but Ishmael certainly gave me a kick in the butt in terms of opening up my thinking about such questions.

By the way, Leaver and Taker are names Mr. Quinn applies to the basic premise(s) that underlay different cultures:

The premise of the Takers' story is 'The world belongs to man.' ...The premise of the Leavers' story is 'Man belongs to the world.'

Give Daniel Quinn's writing a try....you might discover some treasure(s) there.