the natural state of man is co-operation

Hmmm - interesting concept.

I do agree there are many parallels between human society and ants.

For example, did you know that other than humans ants are one of the very few species of animals that actually go to war?

Ants at war

In the American desert, where resources are scarce, honeypot ants wage war without end. Rob Dunn asks if we can draw parallels between ant and human conflict.

How Ants Wage War

Werman: Yeah, we’ve got a picture of that at theworld.org and it is a pretty extraordinary photograph. Why do ants fight each other? What are they fighting over, territory, the queen, food?

Moffett: They’re fighting for economic reasons in the same ways we fight for economic reasons. Typically food, territory if they’re territorial ants is a big thing. There could be roving bands of ants that don’t have territories, but are more predatory and raid the nests of other ants to kill them for food.

See - there is cooperation within the group / colony / society. But between groups and societies it is as often war as cooperation.

Resources of some kind is the usual motive. Food, water, land.. or in your example - money. The form of the actual resource is irrelevant. Group X has something and group Y wants it. Group Y can either trade for it or wage war. Often as not war waged.

Human and ant societies cooperate within the group and fight with other groups. It has been that way as long as their have been humans and ants - and that is a very, very, long time.

reply to post by ImaFungi


Beam me up scotty. That's not a place I'd want to be.

reply to post by frazzle


you are an advanced technological machine,,,,, just not made of indestructible metallic elements,,