Forget saving the environment, save yourself.

Let me just start off by saying that, mentally, this book was intense. I'm not really one to just skim over things while reading, half-comprehending and not absorbing them. Instead I take my time with books and absorb all that is really being expressed by the author and the story being told. More often than not, especially in college, this is a bad thing and really slows me down. However, with this book I think it was necessary.

The shear amount of philosophical, spiritual, and physical ideas presented in Ishmael is overwhelming. The scope of the book is so broad, so vast, that when reading you understand that he's commenting on the entire world, almost all people, and the current concept of civilization. With every conversation between Ismael and the narrator traditional accepted norms are challenged and thrown aside. By analyzing every piece of the culture of mankind deeply, Ismael is able to point out the hypocrisy, environmental injustice, and complete idiocracy of the world we all live in. Throughout the course of the book these lessons are not only taught to the narrator but also to the reader.

At first I was kind of turned away from this book simply by the premise; telepathic guerrilla serves as philosopher and teacher, revealing to man his destructive ways that are engrained and no longer questioned. You have to admit this sounds a little crazy. So, I began doing what Ishmael would do; I questioned. I asked myself "Why?". Why is a guerrilla teaching these lessons? Why is the guerrilla portrayed as kapuna? And then I realized this was actually very key to the book. You see, genetically we are not that different than guerrillas; everyone knows that. Still, culturally we are incredibly different, largely due to the seperation created by civilization. In some tiny way guerrillas are almost us, just left to remain in the trees where we began. It is through our conquer of the environment (and thus destruction of it) that we have risen above guerrillas, and also, that in time, we will fall below.

This book, no matter how outrageous or impractical, emphasizes the notion that is beginning to be more and more evident; if we don't do something to save ourselves we will perish. As far as biodiversity goes man is no greater than the black bear (or any other specific top level predator); we are all simply one species. In the last 40 years the Earth's biodiversity has already fallen by 30% with thousands of species going extinct worldwide; who's to say that we won't be one of them? The Earth can no longer support civilization the way it is being enacted. People need to stop claiming the "green revolution" is one for Mother Earth, and the oceans, and the birds, and bullshit bullshit bullshit. Living environmentally sensitive is about saving ourselves! The Earth was here before humans showed up and as long as we don't literally blow it up in some nuclear warfare, will be here long after. It doesn't need us; actually, it would probably love it if we were gone. Then, for the first time in about ten thousand years, there would no longer be war waged against it, but instead life growing within it.