Saturday Stories
May 26, 2018
New history books would have been written. They would say there were no other races or ideologies since the beginning of mankind – and the Nazis would have taken over the world.
One day at the University of New Heidelberg in Japan, two Aryan students were talking about the textbooks.
"I can't shake the crazy feeling," said one, "that there is some small thing that we're being lied about."
It is such a adventure to read the metaphysical classic Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The story is simple on the outside: a young man, Daniel, finds a mentor who will change his life.
Yet in his daily visits, he learns to look deeply at his most fundamental beliefs. Even more important, he learns to think for himself: to find the answers by finding the right questions.
Why do we do what we do? And why do we believe what we believe? It is because of the stories we were told.
In that tale about the Nazis, those who feel there is something wrong have no choice but to still follow it, or else they'll be destroyed.
It is the same with us. A culture is but a collection of stories.
Our culture tells us that we human beings are superior to plants and animals, and so we have become blind to the perfect balance of nature.
We have been led to believe that we are supposed to rule the planet, and that the only way to survive is to dominate, manipulate and contaminate our environment.
But what Daniel found most shocking was Ishmael itself. Ishamel cannot be real. His mere existence is an anomaly.
If Daniel will only listen to what he wants to hear, someone like Ishmael could not possibly exist.
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