God's Must Be Crazy reflection

The past two days in Global ethics we watched a very funny movie called, The gods must be crazy. Before reading the novel, Ishmael, this video would have just been a comedy to me. After reading Ishmael I was able to make connections between the two that I wouldn’t have been able to previously. This movie helped me picture what we have been talking about in class the last few weeks. We have been talking a lot about the takers and leavers and what each group does differently. In this video both stories are being told. The Bushmen are obviously the Leavers while the guys with guns would be considered the Takers. I found the main character, Xi, to be very interesting. In the beginning he was oblivious to everything. He knew only what he had been taught and knew nothing about other things. I guess that makes sense. How can you know something you don’t know? In the beginning Xi was innocent and was living a happy life. He and his tribe were able to find food when they needed it, and they put leaves out to collect water. There was no crime, fighting, punishment and no bosses. I think the main thing I got from this movie was comparing and contrasting the two concepts of takers and leavers. The first thing I saw that reminded me of Ishmael was when they killed that animal with the dart. I remember talking about the laws of life and how the Takers kill even though its not for food. I think its cool how the Bushmen were able to kill this animal and then apologize to it, saying the family needs it to survive. This is one difference between takers and leavers. Takers will kill for the sake of killing while leavers will only kill if its necessary. The Bushmen had no sense of ownership either. They didn’t even know what ownership was until the coke bottle arrived. Something that stuck me was the American lady who delivered mail to her neighbor by car. I think that demonstrates how much we take advantage of things. We created the car in hopes of being able to travel long distances because other wise its too hard. We the takers are lazy!!! I thought it was also neat how the Bushmen didn’t have any set schedules or times. I think the takers tend to get too caught up in schedules and having to be here at this time and then there at so and so time. Throughout this movie I actually thought about what it would be like to be part of the Bushmen tribe. Walk around half naked and never have a fight or argument. I wouldn’t have to worry about SAT’s and getting into college. I wouldn’t have to buy an apartment and settle. I wouldn’t have to go to the grocery store every week to buy food. I wouldn’t have to buy gas to drive my car. I wouldn’t have to wake up each morning knowing that I could die today. I said I thought hard about wanting to join this leaver culture but in reality, I don’t think I could. Not after living in the taker culture anyway. I appreciate the things I have here and although a lot of my troubles would go away, I would most likely want to stay. This reminded me of Ishmael when they talk about the homeless person. A homeless person doesn’t reap the benefits of society. They are poor and don’t have enough food. They sleep outside and get weird looks. With all this happening they would still be hesitant to go back in time and become a taker. I think the fact that we wouldn’t want to go back in time is astonishing. I guess you would have to wipe my memory for me to do it: because without the knowledge of this place I could be content living in Africa with the Bushmen. I think the biggest turning point in the movie, The God’s must be crazy is when the coke bottle falls from the sky. From there on out you can really notice a change in the way the Bushmen behave. All those things that I was saying they didn’t do started to become apparent in their everyday relationships. Wanting of ownership sprang about as well as anger, jealously, hate and violence. It made them unhappy The way they treated the coke bottle amazes me. They started using it to play music, rub snake skin, make headbands, smash roots and beat things. It became a tool that everybody wanted because no one had seen it before. That single coke bottle took their innocence without them knowing it. Eventually they realize that they don’t want this change in the tribe. They decide that its causing them too much trouble and they must get rid of it. They believe the gods gave it to them, which again shows their innocence and how much they know outside of what they have. An example I saw of a taker culture is when the men with guns raided the small city and took their food. That’s one of the four things takers do to disobey the laws of life. Like I said, the main thing I got from this video was a comparison between taker and leaver culture. Its neat to watch Xi, a leaver, react in a taker environment. When he gets put in prison he doesn’t know how to act. He doesn’t know what prison is. For all he knows it could be a good thing or a bad thing. Also the gunshot was another new experience for Xi. He must have thought it was thunder. He’s never seen a gun in his life so its all new to him. I think this video was very interesting. It’s an older movie but I didn’t seem to notice too much. It was very funny and helped me to picture our discussions in class. I would definitely watch this movie again.