Drone Warfare

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I just finished reading "The Social Conquest of Earth" by Edward O. Wilson. Since then, Wilson's observations on the biological underpinnings of human nature and social structure have rattled around in my head.

Then, yesterday a friend posted the following on her Facebook page:

Discussion at my house today centered on junior high and how it starts at 7.35am. Freddie said.... I don't want to get up that early. It doesn't matter, that's the way it is, i said. And then she said, "Why do adults get to be in charge? I don't want to be a puppet. Why do kids have to be mindless drones?" and I laughed my head off. "Remember dad's last job?" I asked. "Remember how clockiing in one minute late got him a write-up, and he had 7.5 minutes for break? We're all drones. Only the people in charge get to make the rules. You want a job? Want to drop out?" Welcome to Monday...with a new resolve to stay in school. :)

Her post resonated with those rattling, Wilsonian thoughts and inspired me to write the following:

We become drones when we accept without question the "truths" our tribal leaders feed us to maintain their positions of power and influence, even when those "truths" don't square with reality.

Such "truths" offer safety and assurance to all who willingly abandon intellectual freedom and personal worth, both of which are considered dangerous, sinful, or criminal transgressions against the tribe's very essence.

People who avoid becoming drones come to recognize that they have individual integrity and worth with or without the blessings of the tribal leaders, even as they play the tribal game.

This is painful.

Once recognized, these individuals become outcastes who can never return to the mindless safety of the tribal hive-mentality.

Yet there is an upside, and it is of great value.

Whenever the rules of their particular tribe demand sacrificing truth to myth, these outcastes discover that they are free to find another tribe or none at all with only a minimal amount of guilt and pain. They know that they are simply playing one version of a game played by countless similarly constructed social groups, so they are also free to choose to retain their position within the tribe.

Now, however they play with access to the complete rule book, not just the rules their self-serving leaders have parceled out to them.

So, a resounding Yes!

"Welcome to Monday...with a new resolve to stay in school."