Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

My latest read, Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, resonated with me so deeply with all the crazy things that have been happening in the world today. Thank you Emma for recommending to me, and I will be passing the torch. Here's only a few of my favorite points in the book, with without the entirety of the text, maybe be a bit dense. But if it speaks to you, please read the book! Thank you Daniel Quinn for bringing to life!

My latest read, Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, resonated with me so deeply with all the crazy things that have been happening in the world today. Thank you Emma for recommending to me, and I will be passing the torch. Here's only a few of my favorite points in the book, with without the entirety of the text, maybe be a bit dense. But if it speaks to you, please read the book! Thank you Daniel Quinn for bringing to life!

You’re captives in a civilization system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live.

A few years ago…many young people of this country had the same impression. They made an ingenuous and disorganized effort to escape from captivity, but ultimately failed, because they were unable to find the bars of the cage. If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the walls to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual 

Like people of Nazi Germany, they are captives to a story…There’s no need to name it or discuss it. And you hear it incessantly, because every medium of propaganda, every medium of education pours it incessantly. And hearing it incessantly you don’t listen to it…it’s humming in the background.

Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story…to the people of your culture, you’ll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’ll be tempted to say to the people around you, “ How can you listen to this stuff and recognize it for what it is?” And if you do this, people will look at you oddly and wonder what the devil you’re talking about. In other words, you’re going to find yourself alienated from the people around you.

That’s what’s been happening here for the past ten thousand years: You’ve been doing what you damn well mean with the world. And of course you mean to go right on doing what you damn well please with it, because the whole damn thing belongs to you.

This was a very big moment—the biggest in human history to this point. Man was at last free of all those restraints…The limitations of the hunter-gathering life had kept man in check for three million year. With agriculture, those limitations vanished, and his rise was meteoric. Settlement gave rise to division of labor. Division of labor gave rise to technology. With trade and commerce came mathematics and literacy and science, and all the rest. The whole thing was under way at last, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Everyone in your culture knows this. Man was born to turn the world into a paradise, but tragically he was born flawed. And so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidity, greed, destructiveness, and shortsightedness.

One of the most striking feature of the Taker culture is its passionate and unwavering dependence on prophets. (Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Muhammad) Aside from these, there is no tradition whatever of prophets rising up among the Leavers to straighten out their lives and give them new sets of laws of principles to live by…I mean, it’s no great surprise that savages have no prophets. God really didn’t get interested in mankind until those nice white neolithic farmers came along.

“A minute ago you said, ‘We need prophets to tell us how we ought to live, because otherwise we wouldn’t know.’ What is that? Why wouldn’t you know how to live without your prophets?”

We have a certain knowledge about all these things, why don’t we see if any such knowledge can be found about how we live? -Doesn’t that seem strange to you? Considering the fact that this is by far the most important problem mankind has to solve-has ever had to solve—you’d think there would be a whole branch of science devoted to it. 

We now know two highly important things about the Taker mythology. One, there’s something fundamentally wrong with them, and two, they have no certain knowledge about how they ought to live—and will never have any.

This wall is an axiom stating that certain knowledge about how people should live is unobtainable. I reject this axiom and climb over the wall. We don’t need prophets to tell us how to live; we can find out for ourselves by consulting what’s actually there.

It’s your craft that’s carrying you toward catastrophe…and the worst part of it is…that the survivors, if there are any, will immediately set about doing it all over again, exactly the same way.

There are three things the Takers do that are never done in the rest of the community:

1. They exterminate their competitors.(other species never hunt competitors down just to make them dead, the way ranchers and farmers do.)
2. The Takers systematically destroy their competitors food to make room for their own.
3. They deny their competitors access to food. (you may deny your competitors access to what you’re eating, but you may not deny them access to food in general)

Diversity is a survival factor for the community itself

We’re destroying the world because we’re clumsy. We’re destroying the world because we are, in a literal and deliberate way, at war with it.

It is holy work, in Taker culture. The more competitors you destroy, the more humans you can bring into the world, and that makes it just about the holiest work there is. Once you exempt yourself from the law of limited competition, everything in the world except your food and the food of your food becomes as enemy to exterminated.

Any species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion.

You need to take a step back from the problem in order to see it in global perspective. At present there are five and a half billion of you here, and, though millions of you are starving, you’re producing enough food to feed six billion. And because you’re producing enough food for six billion, its a biological certainty that in three or four years there will be six billion of you….and so on and so on…

Crime, mental illness, suicide, and drug addiction are features of an advanced culture

If you go among the various people of your culture-each people will give you a completely different account of themselves, but they are all enacting in a single basic story, which is the story of the Takers.The same is true of the the Leavers. In all, it isn’t the tale you tell that counts, it’s the way you actually live.

Culture is a mother everywhere and at every time, because culture is inherently a nurturer- the nurturer of human societies and lifestyles. Among Leaver peoples, Mother Culture explains and preserves a lifestyle that is healthy and self sustaining. Among Takers peoples she explains and preserves a lifestyle that has proven to be unhealthy and self-destructive.

Doubtless that any of these people had their own tales to tell of this revolution, their own ways of explaining how these people from the Fertile Crescent came to be the way they are, but only one of these tales survived-the one told be the Semites to their children about the Fall of Adam and the slaughter of Abel by his brother Cain. It survived because the Takers never managed to overrun the Semites, and the Semites refused to take up the agricultural life. Even their eventual Taker descendants, the Hebrews, who preserved the story without fully understanding it, couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for the peasant lifestyle. and this is how it happened that with the spread of Christianity and the Old Testament, the Takers came to adopt as their own a story an enemy once told to denounce them.

One of the clearest indications that these two stories were not authorized by your cultural ancestors is the fact that agriculture is not portrayed as a desirable choice, freely made, but rather as a curse. It was literally inconceivable to the authors of these stories that anyone would prefer to live by the sweat of his brow. So the question they asked themselves was not, “Why did these people adopt this toilsome lifestyle?” It was, “What terrible misdeed did these people commit to deserve such a punishment? What have they done to  make the gods withhold from them the bounty that enables the rest of us to live a carefree life?”

Adam in Hebrew, means Man; where Eve means Life

Man can never have the wisdom the gods use to rule the world, and if he tries to preempt that wisdom, the result won’t be enlightenment, it will be death

Leaver peoples are always conscious of having a tradition that goes back to very ancient times. We have no such consciousness. For the most part, we’re a very “new” people. Every generation is somehow new, more throughly cut off from the past than the one that came before.

The Takers accumulate knowledge about what works well for things. The Leavers accumulate knowledge about what works well for people.

People can’t just give up a story. That’s what the kids tried to do in the sixties and seventies. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can’t just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in….I don’t think you can start wanting something till you know it exists.

The premise of the Taker story is the world belongs to man. The premise of the Leaver story is man belongs to the world.

The world doesn’t need to belong to man-but it does need man to belong to it. 

You can’t change these things with laws. you must change people’s minds

The Leaver lifestyle isn’t about hunting and gathering, it’s about letting the rest of the community live- and agriculturalist can do that as well as hunter-gatherers. What I’ve been at pains to give you is a new paradigm of human history. The Leaver life is not an antiquated thing that is “back there” somewhere. your task is not to reach back but to reach forward.

I’m afraid it’s a cause to which almost none of humanity will subscribe. White or colored, male or female, what the people of this culture want is to have as much wealth, and power, in the Taker prison as they can get. They don’t give a damn that it’s a prison and they don’t give a damn that it’s destroying the world.

Peaceful Warrior Quotes

The way of the peaceful warrior begins by embracing all three selves- having your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground...

My most recent read, The Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman absolutely changed my life. The book tells the tale of a man on his own spiritual conquest and the trials and tribulations of his journey. Being we're all on our own journeys, this is very relatable. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:) 

Daily life is the training arena of the peaceful warrior. Spirit gives you everything you need, here and now. You evolve not by seeking to go elsewhere, but by paying attention to, and embracing, what’s right in front of you. Only then can you take the next step on whatever floor you are working.

As the ego dissolves into the arms of God; the mind dissolves into the will of God. No longer trying to control your life or make it work out in a particular way, you stop living, and start being lived. You merge with a larger purpose, the “bigger picture.” You become the Way,…by getting out of the way.

Yes, this world needs more compassion. But we all have different callings. Does this make villains of the rich or saints of the poor? I think not. Complex karmas are at work. Each of us plays our role. Each of us is born into life circumstances to challenge us and allow us to evolve. A beggar in this life may have been wealthy in another life. Inequality has always existed, and until the awareness of humanity rises to at least the third floor, it will continue.

The first step to change, is accepting where you are right now. Completely accept your process. Negative judgments about yourself only hold the pattern in place, because the Basic Self can get very stubborn and defensive. Accepting yourself gives the subconscious child in you the space it needs to grow. When it happens is completely in God’s hands.

Fear can paralyze you just when you need to act. That is dangerous. It contracts the body’s energies, and that contraction attracts the very thing most feared. The absence of fear is not bravado; it’s courage. Courage opens the space to act. You will still know caution when it’s called for.

Fear is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. It pervades that daily lives of most people, moment to moment. You won’t miss it, I assure you. When you’ve conquered your fears by acting courageous in spite of them, life blossoms; you look out at a different world through the windows of the second floor

Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended on man. –Francis Cardinal Spellman

The organs weep the tears the eyes refuse to shed

He could only teach you what you had ears to hear, or eyes to see

#GIRLBOSS

Being a fan of Nasty Girl and being an entrepreneur myself, I had to take a moment to read Sophia Armoruso's book, #GIRLBOSS.  An easy read, but super inspiring specifically because of Armoruso's unconventional path to success. Below are some of the greatest take-away quotes from the book in addition to outside quotes Armoruso includes:

Learn to crest your own opportunity. Know that there is no finish line; Fortune favors action

When you believe in yourself, other people will believe in you, too

Know your customer and know how to get free marketing (MySpace/FB/Insta)

To be, in a word, unborable...It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish -David Foster Wallace

Playing by the rules, or at least some of them: The only way to support a revolution is to make your own- Abbie Hoffman

When your time spent making money is significantly greater than your time spent spending money, you will be amazed at how much you can save without even really thinking about it

Fortune favors the bold who get shit done

I never dreamed for success. I worked for it-Estee Lauder

On writing your resume:
We don't need people who just have ideas; we need people who can also execute them

The four worst words thou shalt never mutter " That's not my job"

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people-Leo Burnett

When you don't dress like everyone else, you don't have to think everyone else-Iris Apfel

Clothing is ultimately the suit of amor in which we battle the world. When you choose your clothing right, it feels good. And there's nothing shallow about feeling good.

Confidence is more attractive than anything you could put on your body.

I remind myself that if I really want something badly enough, I have it within myself to make it happen.

Breaking the rules just for fun is too easy-the real challenge lies in perfecting the art of knowing which rules accept and which to rewrite-Steve Jobs

Rich Dad/Poor Dad Quotes

RICH DAD/ POOR DAD is one of my favorite books in which author Robert T. Kiyosaki shares his personal reflections of how the wealthy got to where they are and how the middle class stays at status quo. Having 2 fathers: One rich, one poor, he was able to assess the difference in lifestyles and how each got their financial standings- From running the rat race to successful investments, below are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

“In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.”

“In the real world outside of academics, something more than just grades is required. I have heard it called "guts," "chutzpah," "balls," "audacity," "bravado," "cunning," "daring," "tenacity" and"brilliance." This factor, whatever it is labeled, ultimately decides one's future much more than school grades.”

“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”

“You’re only poor if you give up. The most important thing is that you did something. Most people only talk and dream of getting rich. You’ve done something.”

“If you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you’re that kind of person, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for something that never happens. Then, you die a boring old man.”

“Emotions are what make us human. Make us real. The word 'emotion' stands for energy in motion. Be truthful about your emotions, and use your mind and emotions in your favor, not against yourself.”

“Workers work hard enough to not be fired, and owners pay just enough so that workers won't quit.”

"THE FEAR OF BEING DIFFERENT PREVENTS MOST PEOPLE FROM SEEKING NEW WAYS TO SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS.”

“The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant.”

“We all have tremendous potential, and we all are blessed with gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence.”

“Just know that it’s fear that keeps most people working at a job. The fear of not paying their bills. The fear of being fired. The fear of not having enough money. the fear of starting over.

"That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money… and then get angry at their boss.”

“Whenever you feel ‘short’ or in ‘need’ of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, but it has always worked for me. I just trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, and I give what I want.”