by Daniel Quinn

2. Ishmael byDaniel Quinn Leavers and Takers

3. Background Society/culture made you part of the myth It is a given that the stories are there for you Mother Culture teaches you how it has been and is supposed to be Your place [as man] is here, participating in the story -- Except for a few thousand “savages” scattered here and there

4. Definitions Story = A scenario interrelating man, the world, and the gods Enact = Live the story to make it real Culture = People enacting a story Mankind deals with mythology == stories

5. A Beginning Consider the story of evolution: How things came to be the way they are The Mosaic

6. Caution To review the story - to question it - will alienate yourself from those around you, friends, associates. People will think even more oddly about you!

8. The Two Stories Have Contradictory Premises

9. More Contradictions

10. Still More

11. Still More

12. Still More Contradictory Premises

13. Mother Culture

14. Taker Edicts • Takers believe that in the early days of man, he merely frittered away time and accomplishe not much of anything. • The big moment came with the birth of man’s culture. • Man is a biological exception - the only one species that is an end product, not a work in progress

15. Manifest Destiny • The gods didn’t intend for the world to remain a jungle — they needed someone to come along and straighten things out - the world was made for {Taker} man and man was made to rule it! • To be ruler, man had first to conquer the world’s elements - conquer it like a foe and leave it bleeding to death at his feet. • Thus, to enact the story, man had to become the enemy of the world

16. Taker-Unique Rules • exterminate competitors • destroy competitors food supply to make room for their own • deny competitors access to food • store food beyond the need to eat - horde • Be agriculturists and farm all the earth - prepare for growth of Taker-man

17. Leaver Rules • Competition is acceptable but not toward destruction of other life for the sake of destruction. • Leavers have boundaries that are real, not imagined - a cultural boundary • Leavers know man is not exempt from the laws that govern all living things

18. Finale?? • Story of Adam and Eve was written from a Leaver-point-of- view as shown by references of the Fall from Grace when leaving the garden -- as opposed to viewing it as an Ascent to Grace or Liberation. • Agriculture is not protrayed as a free, desirable choice, but rather as a curse for those who are banished from the garden

19. Why The goal of man, man’s destiny - from the Leaver view is that it is within man’s grasp to destroy the world and trample all futures to dust - but he can see the light in time and pull back to give the rest of life a chance. Man must show how it had to be done if the world is to forever remain a garden — man’s vision to be inspired