this post can come off as boring, but some of you could find this interesting.
yesterday, like everyday in the past couple of months, i got high. it’s usually what’s letting me sleep these days. somehow i got thinking about bees. why do they sting? the short answer is because they sense danger. well, danger can mean death, but it can also mean surviving – while stinging will definitely kill them. so why do they sting? thank humanity for google. apparently, it’s an instinct. the death, quite gruesome too – “When a honey bee stings a person, it cannot pull the barbed stinger back out. It leaves behind not only the stinger, but also part of its abdomen and digestive tract, plus muscles and nerves. This massive abdominal rupture kills the honey bee”. and the best thing is it does not harm their evolutionary fitness.
so what does that say on a philosophical level?
the way i see it, it’s like suicide, only instinctive. every honey bee will kill itself when in a certain amount of danger. so will humans. every human has a limit. imagine if suicide was instinctive as with bees. there would hardly be any of us left. that would’ve destroy us. so we have morals, and we have fears and many, many walls to break until we can pull the plug and die. it’s just the way of humanity – to prolong our experience of danger and dwell in it. maybe – not to sound too hopeful – in order to protect us. this way, only one percent manages to break every wall and get to the other side.
what do you think?
7 comments
I think that’s an interesting train of thought.
I can’t get high anymore, because now I just get incredibly paranoid and panicky when I’m stoned.
LOL I thought this post was about you somehow getting high on honey or something, if that was even possible 😛
Anyhow, I don’t think you can compare bee suicide to human suicide. Bees have a hive mentality- when they sting and commit suicide, it is about protecting the hive and it’s fellow bees, whereas humans are selfish and we only do it for ourselves. That is a built in instinct in bees. No such built in instinct in humans to kill ourselves- it’s quite the opposite- our humans bodies have a natural instinct to stay alive. Which is why things like trying to suffocate ourselves with a bag over our heads won’t work- our primal survival instinct kicks in and it will remove the bag.
Also, bees sting and commit suicide for a reason- if they are in danger or if the hive is in danger. From that perspective, humans do not commit suicide for a “reason.” Yes, I understand we are all sad/depressed/miserable, but from a nature standpoint, we’re killing ourselves for no reason, unlike the bees. We are not in immediate life-threatening danger from another animal. We are not physically protecting others lives if we kill ourselves.
On the other hand, bees at least serve a purpose in life- they pollinate the flowers around the world. Humans, on the other hand, serve no purpose. If we die, eh, the world would get along just fine without us, just like it did for million of years. Nothing in nature is dependent on humans.
So in that sense, bees > humans. 😛
I disagree with something you’ve said. “Humans are selfish, and we only do it for ourselves”
Some people feel like a burden to everyone and want to end it for that reason. Others do heroic acts that they know will kill them, to save another(s).
Also people in extreme pain are not selfish for wanting to end it. If they are in extreme pain, something or someone may have taken their will to live from them. So I question, Is it selfish if someone feels they have nothing left and want to escape? Maybe they have no sense of self at all anymore, so can they still be deemed selfish?
Just my random silly thoughts
You misunderstand what I mean by selfish. I mean from purely a biological perspective, irrespective of emotions. Bees are programmed by nature to live for, die for, and defend the hive. We humans (and most non-hive animals) are biologically programmed for self-preservation and self-survival. That is what I mean by selfish. Biological definition, not emotional definition.
I obviously don’t think it’s selfish for people to commit suicide, but again, this is not what I was talking about in the above post, ie biological programming.
Anyhoo- wouldn’t it be simpler if we were bees? 😛
I mean, I agree with what you said if we’re talking about people and emotions and all that. Biologically speaking, non-hive organisms are pretty damn selfish, i.e. it is all about self preservation of the organism.
I see