Disneyland-bred Philosophy

No, not the theme park, but rather the world of Disney cartoon characters. It's amazing what little, seemingly insignificant things you see throughout your day can do to your psyche.

Just this morning I was watching a cartoon on the Disney channel (I believe it's called The Replacements, although this isn't an important fact) in which the main character starts taking karate lessons from an über-cliché "karate master" named Craig. One of the first things he is taught is that, like a butterfly, through hardwork someday he too will change, and then he is shown a cocoon. Or something like that. It was a Disney cartoon, so I doubt it was stated any more poetically than that.

Now I know what you're thinking; "Ooooh, he learned that someday he too can fly free, like a butterfly!" WRONG! I am not this simple of a man. Plus I'm not that optimistic. What went through my head as this scene played before my eyes was "HOLY CRAP! CATERPILLARS CHANGE INTO BUTTERFLIES!".

I am not as dim-witted as this may make me sound. I just had forgotten about all that cocoon business. I even forgot how to spell cocoon. True story. I knew at one point in time, probably around third grade, but somehow that information just wasn't important enough to be retained in my immediate memory.

Why would something like this be forgotten? Caterpillars still change to butterflies. Probably hundreds of thousands of butterflies go through complete metamorphosis every year, but I still had forgotten. It probably seems like a small thing to forget to most people, but to me this poses a very troubling question; Have we, as a society (specifically the adults in our society), lost sight of the world around us?

Sure, we say that we know what's going on in the world, and when asked will probably cite statistics for the number of US soldiers dead in Iraq, or detail out an important court case that we've recently been following, but is that really what's important?

Humans, as a whole, have become far too self-involved. The world is our cultures and our societies, but there are millions of other species of animals out there that are comparable in both population size and social-interaction. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I can only assume that they follow the same path of ignorance of these things that I regularly do. I don't mean knowledge of how they work either, but rather a recognition of their existence.

Take some time and study ants. Yes, that's right, I said ants. Those same pesky little buggers that incite you to call the exterminator in to prevent them from crawling all over your counters, or that you merely brush away at picnics. The complexity of ant colonies is absolutely astounding. I swear to god, spend a good deal of time studying ants and it will turn your world upside down.

It's incredible the social structure that they have developed, and their intense, heartfelt efforts to further the good of their colony. There are ants that go out to scavenge food, there are ants that rebuild tunnels, there are ants that do nothing but stay at the colony and take care of the larvae, there are ants that do nothing but bring food directly to the queen, there are ants that take care of the food to make sure it's molding properly. There are even specialized ants that are only born every once in a while that take flight and try to start new colonies. Every ant has a purpose, a job, and they all do their absolute, and I mean literally absolute, best at their specific task.

And their intelligence is astonishing as well! Many species of ants even have symbiotic relationships with other species of insects, and even plants; offering protection to the other member in exchange for food, or shelter. There is even a special species of ants in South America that have learned that if they move their "cows" (I do not remember what they're actually called, but you'll see why I call them cows in a moment) to different parts of the plant, they produce different levels of sweetness in their excretions, which the ants eat. The ants then use this knowledge to heard their cows around to the parts of the plant with the best food supply, so that they can have sweeter food themselves. They even move their cows under leaves if it starts raining heavily to protect them. This may seem a bit far fetched for mentioning, but all ants have the capability to be this intelligent. They just haven't learned it yet.

What is most amazing about all of this, to me at least, is that we go along in our everyday lives missing even the most general sense of what these incredible insects are accomplishing. Why is this? Children get it. Have you ever seen a child sit outside in the grass, just staring at the ground? They see the ants scurrying about, and in their minds they comprehend. They get what they're doing. They see the similarities to humans. Are children smarter than adults? No, but they take time to look at the world around them.

This world exists whether we want to take the time to notice or not, and I feel that we, meaning man-kind in general, need to take a moment to get re-acquainted with the world that we lost so long ago.