Iks by Lewis Thomas

In the “Iks” by Lewis Thomas, the author describes how a small tribe of hunters from northern Uganda called the Iks tries to survive after being forced by the government to give up their homes and living area and move to a poor hills and become farmers. Society is extremely harsh towards the Iks and this causes them to rebel and become abnormal. The Iks were a bunch of selfish people who only cared about themselves, left elders to starve and die, and did not cared about the children. They didn’t share things with each other and they find joy in the other’s misfortunes. Anthropologist were sent to observe the Iks, an anthropologist described the Iks to be ill- mannered fashion. Over the two years he had studied there, he was constantly being harassed and disgraced. After he had published his book, he wrote how he despised the Iks. Thomas then went on to say that he now sees similar behaviors implying on nations and cities compared to the Iks making points saying that the Iks share common characteristics of greed, cruezl, and selfish just like different nations fighting against each other.
To a certain extent I do agree with Thomas, people do act worse when they gather in groups; such as all thats happening in the County of Los Angeles about the water issues, and Hurricane Haiyan that recently struck the Philippines in early November of this year; but we also cannot forget about all the charities and event that raises money for organiations to help the people who needs it in various ways.
California water war has been an great example of different cities fighting against each other since they all share the common characteristics of greed, and selfish. Back in the 1800’s, Los Angeles grew largely in populations when finally it outgr...

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...conclusion may not always be the case. Like the charity organizations I’ve listed, both have been showing great effort of group behaviors.
Given these points, Thomas’s idea are mostly correct and to a certain extent, there are still hopes for the groups that does goods. The California Water War and Hurricane Haiyan well explains that cities and nations can be greedy, selfish and cruel which proves Thomas’s point to be valid. But to a certain extent, groups may not be bad all the time. The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross shows the exception to Thomas’s argument, providing aids, assistance, educations, and donations to those who need it in various ways. In addition, the Iks may be selfish and cruel, behaving bad whether its individually or in groups, I believe the Iks can only sometimes be compared to the Committees, cities, or nations, but not all the time.