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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank
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To: epicure who wrote (18429)7/17/2001 6:38:41 PM
From: cosmicforce  Read Replies (1) of 82486
 
These little beasties (the ants) are in no way held in disdain by me. Actually I admire the collective in its brutal efficiency. I just don't want to be part of it. But I am an individual who tends to act as "grout" in these large social organizations.

If you've ever watched ants, they don't execute grand centralized plans, they execute tiny plans (move this grub back to the nest) by small-scale, concerted local action toward a common collective goal (feeding the nest). This is not the work of individuals but of groups of identical individuals using a general hardcoded paradigm that produces benefit for the whole. Ants could probably benefit by having a handful of individualists running around (and they might even have that!) but they'd be a different species if they were all doing their own thing, negotiating the goods and services each ant could locate.

These kinds of systems, whether they are manifestly fascist or socialistic (in human terms), use a similar deference from self to the group ethos by refusing to recognize individual differences and needs. Those of us, who like me, use their individuality in the collective will never receive the full protection of that collective because we view ourselves as being apart from it. Even though our contributions contribute to the health of the collective, the perception by the collective is that we are some sort of parasite that lives by rules of our own making.
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