Ishmael
I finished this book a few weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to writing about it now. This book analyzes human culture and civilization through the eyes of a gorilla named Ishmael. Ishmael communicates with the narrator of the story telepathically. I realize this sounds ridiculous, but it just a device used by the author to tell the story from an outsider’s point of view. The thesis of the book is that we are destroying the planet, and the cause is human civilization. This defies the commonly held notion that civilization is a positive thing that differentiates humans from the rest of the animal species. But, in fact, civilization is the problem. Our culture tells us that we must control everything, must be master of every inch of the planet. The largest problem being overpopulation. Obviously population puts tremendous strains on our limited resources, which in turn causes conflicts to control those resources. Yet, we put very little emphasis on population control.
Another point of the book is that we as humans act as though we are the ultimate in evolution, and that the earth and all of its resources are ours to be used without consequence. Ishmael contends that we, in fact, are not the ultimate in evolution, rather, we are just the most advanced species so far. For example, if we could ask a jellyfish who was the most import species on the planet, of course the response would be: the jellyfish. Every creature, if it could communicate, would say the same thing, that they are the ultimate in evolution. It’s this arrogance that makes humans so dangerous.
I really enjoyed the book. It definitely made me re-think some of the most fundamental ideas that I had. I haven’t really done the book justice, so I’ll finish by saying I highly recommend it.
