Blog 2: Ishmael Discussion

My group met via zoom on September 2nd from 5:30 to 6:00. The people who participated in the group discussion included myself alongside, Gracie Prevette, and Branch Quirk. During our meeting we discussed each of the guided questions. Some common themes that arose was that we found it hard to blame the destruction of this world solely on one group of people. We believe that yes, we have some part to do with it and we could be more earth conscious, however, it is hard to assume that the “takers” are the only problem. When Ishmael said that taker culture leads to depression we agreed that depression has seen an increase as we have increased the development of technology and social media. These things are affecting our societies mental health and it has been proven that more time spent in nature has significant benefits for an individual's mental health. Although we see that there is a correlation, we do not think that these problems can be fully blamed on taker culture. We also discussed how the narrator wishes he had seen Ishmael’s ad ages ago and Ishmael wishes he would have gotten the narrator at 17. We think the reason for this is that the narrator had a spark inside of him at a younger age when he restlessly sought out a teacher to learn the unknown and soon got tired and came to terms with not having a teacher. Ishmael probably thought that it would have been easier to teach the narrator when he was younger because he would not have so many predetermined ideas and ways of thinking to work around. The book “Ishmael'' made each of us rethink the way we live/ view this world, as well as sparked new realizations about our society. We all found the book very thought provoking and an interesting read.