Phendrana Drifts

So as I said before I headed off to Red Deer - I read these two books called Ishmael and My Ishmael. Both were good and made me think a lot. I'm not sure I have altered my behaviour any and I can certainly say that I still disagree with accepting the philosophy with totality. It ignores completely Plato's cave - making the argument that our lifestyles before civilization (or when we began locking up food, as Quinn suggests) was more sustainable and in many respects better. I'm no anthropologist or archeaologist, so I can neither refute or confirm Quinn's claim, but it really isn't the point. The point is that should humanity continue along its destructive path, we will likely cause our own extinction. Now, we of course don't believe this, as our "Mother Culture" tells us that we are progressing and that these problems will disappear as we advance. Fair enough. I can buy that. I certainly hope that humanity will never encounter a problem that it can't solve, but I certainly believe that we are in mortal danger (although not immediate) given the rate we are destroying our environment and more importantly, destroying our role in it in favour of something that can't last forever.

But, what I think Quinn misses, is that humanity can no longer live as he suggests. Or, perhaps it can, but I can't. I choose to leave the cave - ignorance may be best, but I would rather die and know more about my world than live in ignorance. We have to leave the cave. It is scary and dangerous, and in the end it may even kill us - but we need to know. Our society (and Quinn is projecting this on the whole world, not just the Western world) could learn a lot from Quinn, but in the end, I don't think returning to a more, well, I don't want to say primitive, but it is the only word that comes to mind - a more primitive existance is the answer. The point of being human is not the perpetuation of our species for all time. I would trade our eventual extinction for the knowledge we have accumulated to this point. Indeed, I would rather die than lose all that I have learned so far (unless I had the opportunity to learn it all again, I might take that).

Nevertheless, read the books. They are good and fun. And the lessons contained therein are important. Much more so, and far more complex than I have suggested here. But I still think Quinn is wrong. Humanity can prevail. And I hope, if not believe, that it will.

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