Holey logic

Dear reader,

I'm living in the ruhr area, which means it's an area shaped by mining. What wasn't much thought of at the time of coal mining back then, is the fact that by drilling shafts underground, the ground level will be changed and moving, too. There is especially a danger of old shafts collapsing and leaving deep holes in the ground. You can see that in my parents' home, when you look around for example in the living-room. There and in the other rooms, you'll see smaller or longer cracks in the walls. You shouldn't think about it too much. Otherwise your mind might create images of suddenly tumbling walls or the ground would open up and swallow it up! There's also an interesting crack in the parquet floor between the living-room and dining-room. Now in winter the crack is almost invisible and closed. In the summer it's clearly visible and has the thickness of a finger. Once I heard my mother say that we'll have to leave the house in any case in about 10 years or so, when the house will be collapsing or breaking apart from the mining. A scary though, that the house will suddenly just collapse or break apart like that and be impossible to live in.

As a fan of Mark Gatiss, I know he was born in county durham. So when in the end of august this year, one of my mails from the guardian had the article headline of “30 metre wide sinkhole appears in Durham”, I was all ears, of course. Sam Hillyard had been for a walk with her dog when she noticed the hole, which has even grown wider now. The bottom can't be seen. It's assumed that if someone falls in there, it would be impossible to get the person out again. Which is why there are warnings now to keep your distance. It's assumed that it comes from mining in that area.


I was practically speechless when I read the following article headline though: “Kiruna: the town being moved 3km east so it doesn't fall into a mine”. The swedish town lives from iron-ore mining. Now the mining resulted in so much damage in the city, that the citizens have to move. Typical for the civilised people to often start thinking about their actions and results of that, when their own life is at risk because of it. Maybe futuristic films like Twelve Monkeys aren't that unrealistic after all and the surface of the earth is contaminated with something or otherwise condemned as uninhabitable. Or everything is sunken in from the many drillings and mining of things inside the earth, that there simply isn't a surface anymore as we know it now.

Until next blog,

sarah

Two and a half cultures

Dear reader,

there are two big human cultures. One is that of the indigenous people, especially earlier often called "primitive" or "wild". They lived and live ever since they can remember basically the same way without huge changes and above all they live in accordance with the part of the world that's around them. The others call themselves civilised, spread throughout the whole planet and destroy not only the planet. Their lifestyle is so demanding that many of them are sick and probably destroy themselves that way, too. Many are so desperate that in fact they kill themselves. Mind you, not every death can be traced back to that unusual lifestyle.

In his book „Ishmael“ Daniel Quinn uses a different pair of words for those two cultures. Even though he describes one culture as destructive, he still wants to move away from the generally loaded with prejudices words of civiliced and primitive or even wild. Based on the saying „take it or leave it“, he chose “Takers” for the civilised and “Leavers” for the indigenous people. One can argue about whether or not it makes much sense to use a new pair of words. Like so many other things that are simply renamed because of the bad image. Daniel Quinn himself has since gone back to writing about civilised and indigenous people. His books, not just Ishmael, are quite well known. Maybe he moved away from his pair again, because in the end it doesn't matter what you call those two cultures.

I want to call your attention to one other aspect regardless of that. Daniel Quinn stresses the point that there is no one right way to live for humanity. Although the civilised spread out and with that also spread the very thought of just that. Namely that their lifestyle is the right way and desirable for all people. On the other hand it's obvious that the lifestyle of the indigenous people is by far calmer and less demanding for the immediate environment of the people living that lifestyle. If the civilised are so destructive with their lifestyle, wouldn't it be better to destroy this culture and lifestyle. Particularly since the destruction of the Earth by man will stop with that, too. (Whether with the climate change will stop, too and the Earth will be more “stable” all together, is another doubtful subject.) I assume that indigenous people would most certainly rather fight to defend themselves, but not to actually attack the civilised. They are, as history has shown, far more powerful anyway. A dismantling of the civilisation to save the Earth would more likely happen from within. By people, who are unhappy with that lifestyle and want to put it to an end. But if civilisation is most likely to be dismantled by civilised people, would those fighters not in the end fight themselves? Maybe they'd be something in between those two cultures. Half a culture?

Besides, what if civilisation with all its flaws is just a intermediate stage for humanity to the next stage? Much like a toddler clumsily learning how to walk, very uncertain at first, before they actually walk and run like the grown-ups. How would we know whether civilisation is more like a virus that should better be destroyed to protect all the others or whether it's a clumsy intermediate stage towards something far better?

In any case: more and more young native americans show more interest in their own culture again and overall there is a greater interest in self supplying, how to make fire and other related subjects. I don't know how much those things will actually be useful in the end. At least the knowledge about those kind of things doesn't get lost with interested people like that. Does that really help the Earth in some way? Could the civilised, who showed interest in such things so far actually live like that when civilisation is broken down? No idea. Maybe time will tell when it actually happens.

Until next blog,
sara

M&M: Instinct

Dear reader,

the movie “Instinct” was released in 1998 and is based on the idea of the novel “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn. They truly don't have much in common than the idea really. Those who know the book, will certainly be disappointed about how much of it can be found in that movie, which is precious little. I still think it's good to know both - the book and the movie. Here's the story of the movie:

Dr. Ethan Powell is a famous anthropologist. Before he got missing in the African jungle for several years, he was studying gorillas. When they find him, he hurts some and also kills one of the men. He's send in jail in Rwanda. He doesn't speak a word to anybody. They get him back to America, where the young, engaged psychiatrist Dr. Theo Caulder feels he'd get more popular if he can get Powell speak again.

But when Powell starts talking to Caulder, something strange happens: everybody thought that Powell was the patient and Caulder the doctor, but when Powell begins to talk, he becomes a teacher, a guide to Caulder, who now is a kind of student. Powell doesn't only guide to the last two years in the jungle, but also gives him a different way of seeing the world and shows him that what we think is the truth, may not be quite right. In the end Caulder didn't only lost a couple of things, but - and even more important - found interesting ones also.

Director was John Turteltaub, maybe best known for his movie "While you were sleeping". Dr. Ethan Powell is played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who's most famous role was as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He got his first Oscar for his Dr. Hannibal Lecter in "The silence of the lambs". Dr. Theo Caulder was played by Cuba Gooding, jr, who also got an Oscar (supporting act), for his play in "Jerry Maguire". Composer of the score was Danny Elfman, who also did the film score for movies like "Spider man" or "Men In Black".

On his homepage Daniel Quinn answers questions from interested people and fans. Here is his answer regarding his reaction to “Instinct”:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=420

Here you can read his thoughts on common elements between “Instinct“ and “Ishmael“:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=433

Until next blog,
sarah