A wise girl knows her limits.
A great girl knows she has none.

It still amazes me how the narrator managed to figure out the laws in merely four days (although the first one wouldn't really count as he spent the entire day telling himself he couldn't do it, and I don't blame him). I thought it was pretty hard when Mr. Loken asked us to guess what the laws were. Some people obviously read ahead and re-phrased what was in the book, but for those who didn't, it must have been a difficult exercise; there are so many things you wouldn't know where to start.

I thought it was very clever of the author to use the laws of gravity and aerodynamics as a parallel to the Taker culture. One of the things that is sending us hurling fast into the previous fallen "aircrafts" is the fact that we're fighting a natural law, and believing in that decision so blindly that we don't even know we're heading towards our own doom. I seriously believe that all the leaders in the world should read Ishmael. One of the worst mistakes we're making is encouraging more population growth. Like we discussed in one of our classes, when an area is struck with poverty the first thing we do is send them food, yet we pay no attention to their frighteningly high birth rates. Because we take so much for ourselves, there is no balance like in the Leaver world where competition is actually a good thing and a crucial and necessary part to make the laws work.

However, it's one of those things about being in our current society that makes us feel that if we don't feed people, it's like "killing", it's morally wrong. Another thing that I wanted to point out is that in our society, food is not only a necessity but a kind of pleasure. For those who can afford it, eating excessively isn't a problem. In the wild, they just eat enough so they can survive.

Something interesting that I had been thinking about when the narrator and Ishmael were discussing about the laws is that generally we give animals almost human characteristics. We think that competitors are enemies, and so are the predators with their prey. Many of these misunderstandings are shown in fiction and just usual conversation.

While reading Ishmael, I'm always thinking to myself why if we know what we're doing wrong already, why don't people do something about it? The book puts things out simply, but in reality it's much more complicated. It's not easy to change. With the mentality we have, living like the Leavers would be like a taboo; we'd be "regressing". After centuries of inventions, discoveries, and an incredibly large amount of time dedicated to gathering knowledge-- I don't think we're ready to do that.