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News & ArtsThursday, May 13, 2010
Books Marxism and Insects: Slave-Making Ants
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, May 13, 2010 at 1:10 PM
From one of the most lively sections in Origin of Species:
This ant is absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid, the species would certainly become extinct in a single year. The males and fertile females do no work of any kind, and the workers or sterile females, though most energetic and courageous in capturing slaves, do no other work. They are incapable of making their own nests, or of feeding their own larvae. When the old nest is found inconvenient, and they have to migrate, it is the slaves which determine the migration, and actually carry their masters in their jaws. So utterly helpless are the masters, that when Huber shut up thirty of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food which they like best, and with their larvae and pupae to stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could not even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger. Huber then introduced a single slave (F. fusca), and she instantly set to work, fed and saved the survivors; made some cells and tended the larvae, and put all to rights.What must be noted is the propinquity of this passage to the most famous chapter in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, "Master and Slave." In that chapter, which is often to seen as the grund of Marxism, Hegel argues that because the world is more and more made and shaped by slave labor—serving, building, putting "all to rights"—the world makes more and more sense to slaves and less and less sense to the masters ("so utterly helpless are the masters"). The masters only know how to destroy; the slaves know how to create.
8
Even more interesting is the next section, in which the slave ants become aware of this inversion of dependence and develop a version of stoic philosophy.
Could you say a little more about where you see Marx jumping off here? If the slave is the proletariat, does the rest of Hegel's narrative explain anything interesting?
Could you say a little more about where you see Marx jumping off here? If the slave is the proletariat, does the rest of Hegel's narrative explain anything interesting?
10
Hegel was a philosophical hack hired by the Prince of Prussia to lend philosophical legitimacy to his reign.
Interestingly enough, enslaved ants also can revolt and go on to slaughter their captors children:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discob…
Interestingly enough, enslaved ants also can revolt and go on to slaughter their captors children:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discob…
13
Technically, the Queen Ant is a slave to the colony. And those "free" male ants (drones) don't have very long lifespans ... think of them as football players of the ant world.
Lots of sex and then they die.
Lots of sex and then they die.
15
As a protest against the Man, I refuse to "note" any propinquity for the rest of my natural life.
I know, its just a small thing, but just think- if everyone did it, what a huge difference it would make...
I know, its just a small thing, but just think- if everyone did it, what a huge difference it would make...
16
some days one regrets the past, some days one longs for it.
the past cannot return, the present is a poor substitute.
i miss my own mortal coil dearly.
the past cannot return, the present is a poor substitute.
i miss my own mortal coil dearly.
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