Bees and Wasps

[Madame Pandora]

There was a good short story written by Stephen King (the name fails me) in which one of the characters theorizes that human beings are doomed because our natures are more like those of bees than of wasps.

I love a cool analogy, even one I don’t agree with.

In this case, his point was that we, as a race, have the ability to do harm and yet go on and commit harm again and again, like a wasp, whereas most bees lose a part of themselves in the act of inflicting damage and therefore are more discriminating in wreaking their havoc. (I have no idea if the biology of that is correct, but certainly it is a common assumption).

Are we wasps and not bees, and therefore doomed to commit horror after horror because so many times there is nothing of ourselves lost in the act of our transgressions?

MP

 

[Todd]

as having a bee farmer in my i can tell you

bees can only sting once, cause when they do there stinger as well as there inards rip out of thier body due to its barb like attachemnt, thus meaning when a bee stings it gives up its life


on the other hand a wasp can sting over and over again and agin cause the stinger is barbelss and better attached to the body

 

[Ally C]

I don't bee-lieve it!

If we are 'wasps', then all I can say is don't trust people who call you 'honey'. Then again, if we're bees, just tell them to buzz off.

If that makes little sense, you should see the stuff I erased. Can't stop now, must go get me some royal jelly. zzub, zzub (as a bee flies backwards past me...)

 

[Ezzy]

Re: I don't bee-lieve it!

If that makes little sense, you should see the stuff I erased. Can't stop now, must go get me some royal jelly. zzub, zzub (as a bee flies backwards past me...)

ZOOM ZOOM (as a cow flies backwards past me...).




EZ

Ps. Sorry for going off topic.

 

[Ally C]

Sounds like a mad cow. A cow flying past or a cow with flies? Maybe the flies are in fact bees. Maybe they're wasps. I'd forgot about this thread, and forgot what I was going to say next. Ah well ...

 

[Bob Peale]

And let's not forget the ever popular...

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."

 

[Ally C]

Those machines.

They'll be the death of us.

 

[MinkSoul]

tis easer to destroy then to build...

i beleive we are in a transition in our intilectual evolution....

we are (slowly ..... Painfuly slowly) stumbling from destroyers to builders....

yes, we are still clear cutting forests... yes we are still killing cetations (dolphins, whales, ect...)...

but, as a spieces, the collective lightbulb is flashing over our heads that this may not be the right way...


admittedly there are those who still think they can "tame nature, but their numbers are dwindling and those who realize that we are a part of it are starting to be heard

paradigm changes take generations, not hours, unless there is a Direct threat to your own life....

so, if AIDS don't kill us, and if we don't kill ourselves (highschool shootings...WW3?) we just may have a chance....

i'd say more but i'm off to work....

 

[Bob Peale]

I swear when I first saw this...

I thought it said "Beer and Wasps".

And I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I thought WASPS preferred gin?"