I am reading a very interesting book the last few weeks, The Lucifer Principle. It breaks everything down from complex societies to our cellular composition and explains how similar systems are throughout nature. The name made me hesitate and even ask why Boy was interested in the book, but so far, there is nothing goofy about religion either way. The title is sort of misleading, the book just seems to be a textbook for a sociology class, but done in a very interesting way.
The current chapter I read had to do with groups of ants. In a colony of ants, all ants can be any type of ant. If you are fed some food, you will grow up bigger and stronger and become a guard ant, if you are fed another food, you will become a worker ant, smaller but strong enough to carry huge loads on your back. Still another rare type of food and an ant may be destined to become a queen one day, capable of reproducing to keep the colony going. The blueprints for either ant are instilled in all the ant's DNA, and in great circumstances, such as disease or if the queen is killed by marauders, a worker ant can start producing eggs to save the colony.
The chapter actually is about hatred and how it comes about due to frustration. One of the most frustrating aspects of life is wasted potential. It then goes on to describe a man who had come back after serving in the military. He was slightly rundown looking, failed at farming, failed at real estate, and was kept employed by his father in his store. When the civil war broke out, he volunteered to serve, less than two years later, he was promoted to major general. Ulysses S. Grant eventually became President.
These two broad ideas are brought together by claiming it is the social organism that determines the role each of us will play. Any one of us is capable of being master or slave, a beggar, or a king. We will probably live only one role and thus carry with us a slight burden of resentment at not achieving more.
This hatred can poison a community or a colony. It is a masterful leader who can take this hatred and take the superorganism and lead it around by the nose. I am mixing up the chapter around, but it was a fascinating read. It goes deeper into taking ant colonies, picking out the lazy ants, and the super busy ants, forming two separate colonies, and in the lazy ants, some become more motivated and as well in the super busy ants, some become more lethargic. It seems to say all must be represented. This is then compared to campers who when a group of new individuals are put together, four main types of personalities emerge: leader, bully, joker, and nerd. Take a grouping of all leaders or all bullies, and they will then break down into the same: leader, bully, joker, and nerd.
The chapter was only seven pages, yet I could not put the book down. There is a lot more in there, backing his thoughts and allegations, I'm just aiming at the large bullet points.
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