In the bible, Ishmael was the son of Abram and his wife's servant, Hagar. Hagar was pregnant with Abram's son and grew to despise her mistress, Sarai. Hagar ran away from her mistress, but in doing so, was stopped by an angel. The angel said to Hagar, "And you will have a son. / You shall name him Ishmael, /for the Lord had heard your misery. /He will be a wild donkey of a man; / his hand will be against everyone/and everyone's hand against him, /and he will live in hostility/ toward all his brothers" (NIV 29). In Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, the boy was actually a gorilla, who had pupils and taught them concepts about how man was destroying the world. Among these concepts were diversity, Mother Culture, and captivity. These three concepts are the most vital to the story because each one allows our world to survive for a longer period of time.
Expulsion of Ishmael and His Mother, from Gustave ...
English: Abraham casting out Hagar and Ishmael
The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, oil on canvasIf man was aware of these concepts, perhaps he could find the error in their ways.
A community that consists of millions of species is promoted by the law of diversity. Diversity is what makes a natural system, as well as one's that are human designed, strong and resilient. Such systems can withstand and survive diseases, invasions that would devastate less varied communities. Without diversity, a community would be fragile, highly vulnerable, and collapse under any change in conditions. Each day, Takers (civilized people) destroy species which disappear leaving dwindling numbers could result to a very weak community. A community in which diversity is lacked also lacks the chance to survive any kind of global catastrophe. "We're not destroying the world because we're clumsy. We're destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it"...