How to Save the World

Ishmael says:

"...The story of Genesis must be reversed. First, Cain must stop murdering Abel." (Quinn 248). Meaning, the Takers must stop exterminating the Leavers, as they show "there is no one right way to live." To Takers, the Leaver life is horrible. They constantly struggle to survive, trying to live off the land (and, essentially, the gods) instead of growing their own food. Ishamael says this is nonsense, conditioning given by Mother Culture. "Far from scrabbling endlessly and desperately for food, hunter-gatherers are among the best-fed people on earth, and they manage this with only two or three hourse a day of what you would call work-which makes them among the most leisured people on earth as well." (220). The Leaver life is just as good, if not better, than the Taker lifestyle. Ishamael also says that we "must spit out the fruit of that forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet." (248). We must stop thinking that the world belongs to man. Humans do not have the same knowledge of the gods, therefore, we must stop trying to conquer and rule the world. Takers must follow the Leavers, taking their story's premise of man belongs to the world. "The creatures who act as though they belong to the world follow the peace-keeping law, and because they follow that law, they give the creatures around them a chance to grow toward whatever it's possible for them to become." (246). Ishamael says that to save the world, Takers must start living like Leavers. They must let other creatures live, by ceasing to destroy them.