Ishmael Companion: Beyond Civilization -- resources for teachers and readers
Pyramid builders · Pharaohs · The Mayan solution · Beyond the pyramid
What is a ziggurat? A bastille? A Maginot Line? How are these things similar to pyramids? [Among other things, they're massive, government-sponsored projects.]
Do you feel it's true that everybody wants you to think you're the luckiest kids on earth? How do people react when you express doubts about the future (if you do)?
Under communism as Marx envisioned it, what would happen to Bill Gates's "pyramid," Microsoft? [Presumably it would belong to the workers who built it, rather than to Bill Gates.] How does this square with Quinn's description of Marx's "idea of breaking chains"?
Why wasn't the meme civilization must continue at any cost and not be abandoned under any circumstance lethal to pharaonic Egypt or to Han China or to medieval Europe? [See earlier sections on lethal genes and memes.] Do you agree that it has become lethal to us?
Quinn says "We must destroy in ourselves and in the people around us the meme proclaiming civilization to be an unsurpassable invention." How do you "destroy" a meme? Has this meme been "destroyed" in you?
Can you think of any memes that seem to have been destroyed or are in the process of being destroyed in our society? [Thirty years ago, it was considered the citizen's greatest privilege and highest duty to vote in elections. Some meme seems to be at risk here.]
Do you know any of those "rare" individuals who just "love" dragging stones?
| 
