An imaginary satirical metaphor.
Think about it. How do you tell an ant that it is:
- Sexless
- Works for everybody else in a sterile slave-like capacity
- It has no other purpose than to work, work and ,work for the benefit of all others.
Supposing you could establish any kind of communication with an ant and you and “it” could understand each other, how would you explain to an ant what it is that it is doing? An ant does not mind its faith (I am not even sure it has one – mind that is – that we humans can relate to). Its purpose is to work for ,errr , for the colony of course, for the queen (ant), and for the benefit of all.
An ant will not understand personal wishes, desires, dreams, individual soul and consciousness, and stuff like that. This is irrelevant (for the ant) since it does not matter for the greater good of the colony. An ant’s life is irrelevant. An individual ant means nothing. They’re in it together and they count only in as much as they serve the , I am not sure what precisely they serve. The colony? The queen (ant)? The drones (which are the few males who can have sex)?
Did you know that ants form colonies that consist mostly of sterile, wingless females forming castes of “workers”, “soldiers”, or other specialized groups? Oh, there are some fertile males called “drones” and one or more fertile females called “queens”.
The other day I saw a bunch of ants working hard to bring food back to the colony. That’s what they do – day in and day out. Actually during the night they might have other jobs .
It was a fascinating exercise to watch them. One of them, the worker who maybe thought “I will work better and harder to prove myself worthy” was sometimes pulling, sometimes carrying a piece of something about 10 times bigger than its body size.
And I said to myself watching its struggle “Wow, she surely hopes to be promoted at least for a day to the rank of “drone”. At least she can have sex and participate in the perpetuation of the ants’ species!
Isn’t that nice?
According to the article “‘Asexual’ Ants May Be Having Sex After All” by Daniel Strain
“Celibate animal species are rare for a reason, Rabeling says. Because asexual populations can’t mix and match genes through mating, they often lack the genetic diversity to respond to unexpected challenges like disease.”
Wow! So they can simply disappear one day if an infectious or otherwise disease strikes the colony!
I am really surprised since ant “societies” have “division of labor” and communication between individuals, and were a subject of intense study because of the parallels with human societies. Moreover they have also been an inspiration for the human society. In fact you’re told perpetually that you don’t count as an individual and only the society in general counts. Your life has no intrinsic value unless it serves a purpose for society. Seems like an ant’s life!
Wow again! I like ants (if they stay out of my house) but to compare a human being to an ant is a little much for me.
I wonder what ants think about us?
Be well
3 Comments
Brett Ellis
Wow! This is my most favorite article of this year!!!
I also find it very interesting that chemicals play a large part in keeping worker ants in a working state, driving them to work, work, and work until death… they may even be deprived of sleep and in ways punished if they do anything other than work for the queen ant and maybe even small rewards when they do their job well by being given a crumb or two!
Sounds like a mind control process to me! Chemicals present in driving actions, deprivation of sleep, reward when doing what others direct and punishment when taking any other action other than to serve the queen ant and colony!
That’s an interesting word, isn’t it? COLONY!!! Colonization! Colonialism! Well, may be the ants have a program of a common wealth of the so called society they serve! Does a common wealth actually occur??? NO! But hey, the ants could be hypnotized and not even know it, couldn’t they??
Some types of ants are even known to invade other colonies turf or lands… devouring one colony and inserting their own colony. Is that a common wealth that’s common to all ants? I think NOT!
Have you ever know of a dog or cat that has no idea it’s a dog or cat? They almost seem human like in an animals body. You know the ones, like the dogs and cats that only need look at you and somehow speak through their minds!! Who knows, maybe they are more than just a cat or dog and just maybe a meow or a woof is somehow a cover just in case they’re exposed. BUT, exposed to what?
In some cultures around the globe it’s known that in times long ago that animals, or some animals, actually spoke words like humans… maybe they still do and humans have become deaf and sterile to their lives themselves with ears that do not hear and minds that do not think!?!
I think therefore I am! Is this enough for you?? You are because you are! Not because you are at the heart of the very thing that graces you with being and an exalted power that may or may not be used by you for you! Could you actually be the key of creativity that opens your door of belief in light of everything dawning upon your own creations or not? That was a bit heavy hey 🙂
Anyway… did you know that upon this planet are a few different forms of ant eaters?? Apparently they’re not fussy, they’ll eat worker ants, drone ants, female ants and even the big juicy ones called queen ants!? Myself I prefer to eat chickens because they have more meat on them compared to ants…
So I wonder what happens when the queen ants are eaten? What do all the other ants do? Who do they serve then? Another queen ant? What if that also was eaten by ant eaters? Then what? Ants stop existing? I think NOT! Would they elect a new queen ant? Or would a new queen ant be appointed to position and dominate and dictate the purpose of the NON-THINKING ant?
I don’t know myself. If I was an ant I might be able to say what would happen in such cases of queen ants being eaten.
I wonder how ants came to have six legs? So they could work more efficiently?? And I wonder why queen ants have wings??? So they can fly away and leave their colony and begin a new one?? Some kind of queen that would be after all the colony had done for the service to her… I’m surprised the queen ants don’t devour their juvenile ants when needing pure raw energy to grow wings and fly away!!!
I wonder what dolphins think of ants and their colonies because we all know that dolphins think and communicate together don’t we! 🙂
Wow! This article really has me thinking now!
🙂
NLP NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 257
[…] Ants Don’t Have To Think – A curious article by Dr. Adriana James…Sexless ants? Slavery? Lack of genetic diversity? Interesting. And it has been said that ants hold a certain level of similarity to humans…very interesting. Introduction written by Fini Todd @ Sydney Office. […]
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