Books - The Story of B

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	Books - The Story of B

The Story of B (ISBN 0-55-337901-1), a work of fiction, was written by Daniel Quinn and was published in 1997 by Bantam Publishing. It chronicles the teachings of a colleague of Ishmael, whose story is told in the book Ishmael, published in 1995.

The Story of B acts as a halfway point between the novels Ishmael and My Ishmael, also by Daniel Quinn. While referring to (but not based upon) the gorilla Ishmael, Quinn's novel takes readers along side Jared Osborne, a Laurentian pastor. Jared is sent by his superior Fr. Lulfre to Europe on an investigation of the teachings of a so called "Antichrist" known simply as B. B's teachings are those of "Our Culture" East and West as a means for destroying the world by way of "Totalitarian Agriculture," as he himself focuses on delivering the good news that this culture is "not humanity" and that there are ways to save our world, a world which was never meant to need saving.

The teachings of B: The Great Forgetting

The fictional teachings of B are documented in full at the end of the book. Although the book is written in first person point of view from Jared’s naïve perspective, the author's real-life perspective echoes that of B. The following teachings are therefore Daniel Quinn’s historically-based ideas of the descent of man and the future of human history.

The Great Forgetting is the term B uses to describe the event in which “prehistoric” humans became the “historical” humans of the last 10,000 years. The Great Forgetting is the period in human history when Neolithic man began to settle in villages and establish agriculture-based societies. Quinn argues that human history before this period has been ignorantly labeled “prehistory,” making the 3 million years of humanity before The Great Forgetting seemingly unimportant and obsolete.

The humans of the last 10,000 years have had no record of the humans of pre-history until recently. Therefore, Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic humans were completely forgotten by all historians and important thinkers that have shaped our world today. Quinn argues that our knowledge and worldview today would be greatly altered had these thinkers known there was human history beyond what occurred 10,000 years ago. But even when Paleontology uncovered 3 million years worth of human generations, our worldview was still not affected. Instead, humanity used terms like “pre-history” and “The Agricultural Revolution” to label these events, rather than ingratiating their ramifications into our societal fabric.

Food and population control

A continual theme through B’s teachings is that population growth is completely dependent upon food production. The equation is simple: increase in food production = increase in population growth; decrease in food production = stable/decrease in population growth.

Food production over the last 10,000 years has followed the same pattern – totalitarian agriculturists have always opted to produce more food in fear of maintaining dominance over their food supply. And populations have consequently followed suit, increasing at exponential rates.

ABCs of ecology

To better exemplify the his ideas of food production and population control, Quinn introduces the ABCs of Ecology.

The first part of ecology (Part A) consists purely of food. Food is best described as all life forms.

The second part of ecology (Part B) consists of how populations are effected by the food supply. Part B is therefore dependent upon Part A. Quinn explains that populations are a function of produced food.

History of humanity since the Great Forgetting

When Neolithic humans began to establish agricultural villages, they began to understand that efficient production was a necessity. The humans in the Near East established a style of agriculture that Quinn labels as "Totalitarian Agriculture." Prehistoric hunters and gatherers hunted according to a worldview that promoted coexistence and competition between predator and prey. However, the new breed of totalitarian agriculturist, understanding that survival depended upon food supply, operated with the worldview that the world was theirs to control and all the food in the world was theirs to produce and eat. Quinn labels hunters and gatherers of this world, such as the Bushmen of Kalahari and Yanomami of Brazil, as "Leavers" and the totalitarian agriculturalists "Takers".

Totalitarian agriculturists, while originally representing a single society, eventually began to overrun other societies as their food supply and populations grew. World population began to double, first taking 2000 years; then taking 1600 years; and eventually only taking 200 years between 1700-1900 AD; then again between 1900-1960 AD; and yet again between 1960-1996 AD. Over the last 10,000 years, this single society has expanded to include 99.8% of the world’s population.

Quinn argues that this exponential growth of the human population is neither sustainable nor in sync with how humans are supposed to live with their environment. He points to several major problems in our society that he claims arose from over-produced food and an over-crowded population. He states that war, crime, famine, plague, an exploited labor force, drugs, slavery, rebellion, and genocide have resulted from Totalitarian Agriculturists' continual expansion. Quinn emphasises that to reverse the damage we have caused, humankind does not inherently need to change, but rather a single culture – albeit 98.2% of the population – has to be changed.

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