ISHMAEL by DANIEL QUINN

I've decided that the most effective way for me to talk about what I'm reading is to just act like I'm discussing what I have read with someone else. This means that anytime I write about a novel, the post may be subject to spoilers.

You have been warned.

My mom brought home this book called Ishmael from her college. The staff is looking to assign the book as a summer reading assignment, but some of the administrators were not sure if the book would be too dated.

I could tell immediately that this book is anything but dated. In all actuality, it is eerily current. Or rather, sheds light on the fact that the same environmental and population issues that we are considering a crisis now were also a crisis in 1992. And were also a crisis before 1992. As a "civilized" human society (or as Ishmael calls us: Takers) we have been aware of the problem but have chosen to ignore it because we are being told by Mother Nature that human beings do not need to live by the same standards as animals.
We have set ourselves apart from the wild with the false assumption that we we were "born to turn the world into a paradise, but tragically [we were] born flawed. And so [our] paradise has always been flawed by stupidity, greed, destructiveness, and shortisghtedness."

This book gives an extended discussion between the teacher Ishmael, who happens to be a gorilla, and his student. Presumably, the student represents me (the reader) in his ignorance and persistence in questioning. The student is me because he is learning at the same time as I am what Ishmael has to say. Which is a lot.
In the particular discussion that I am thinking of, Ishmael explains to his pupil about gaining knowledge through a system of trial and error. He explains that mankind learned how to fly when he discovered that there were certain laws which govern flying. The laws of aerodynamics working hand in hand with the law of gravity. Without this knowledge, a man could build the most beautiful flying machine but it will not fly if it is breaking the laws.
The pilot, full of dreams and not aware of these laws, will ignorantly throw himself and his craft off a tall cliff. For a long time, the man thinks that he is flying when in reality he is in an extended fall. He will only realize that he has not flown when he ceases to fly: ie- he crashes.

"Trial and error isn't a bad way to learn how to build an aircraft, but it can be a disastrous way to learn how to build a civilization."

endpost.