We Live in a World of Bees
We were all born with the potential to be brilliant, great, even extraordinary. But we live in a very specific world. Notably, we live in a world of bees and we work on creating our own honey. Except we call it money.
Our beehives work very much like theirs. We have our queen bees and our worker bees. If you are neither, you are most likely bumbling around the hive trying to find your place in it. Now despite our individual brilliances, we can’t all be queen bees. The catch- hives do not breed excellence. A hive full of queens would be chaos—too many crowns, not enough honey.
And in order to find our place in the hive, if we cannot be a queen, we accept the roles of worker bees. Worker bees grind, toil, and produce the sweet nectar of profit dreaming that one day they too might rise to be the queen. Worker bees breed competence, not excellence.
Excellence, it turns out, is bad for the hive. Too many dreamers buzzing around not being able to find a place within means the whole thing is on the brink of a collapse. Brilliance is not a bee’s best bet.
Some clever individuals looked at this setup and thought: “Maybe we’ve got it all wrong. What if we ran things like ants instead?”
Ants, after all, are the ultimate team players. No egos, no crowns—just a collective hustle for the greater good. Everybody has a role, and everyone works together. It has a rational sensibility in this where everyone accepts their role, and moves along the machinations of the world. Sort of like a beautifully crafted watch. That was the dream when some of our most brilliant minds thought of communism.
But there’s a downside: ants don’t create. Ants only produce and maintain. If we started behaving like ants, innovation would halt, or at least severely slow down. Individuality doesn’t really fly in an ant colony. You’ve got dreams of greatness? Too bad. You’re an ant. Pick up that crumb and keep moving. Ambition is not an ant’s acumen.
Here’s the thing: we aren’t bees, and we sure as hell aren’t ants. Humans are complicated creatures—messy, ambitious, creative, and just unpredictable enough to ruin both systems. We don’t thrive in rigid hierarchies like bees, but we also don’t do so well with the conformity of ants. History has taught us that beehives are better than ant colonies. At least for most of the world anyway. But is it? How is the world’s largest and most productive beehive doing today? What will it do once we begin to automate our production of honey?
Perhaps we are wolves. Magnificent creatures, ferocious yet humble? Wolves can't work alone, but also need individual authority to thrive in packs. I suppose that's what the socialists were going for? But wolf pack hierarchies are volatile, and often tenuous. Worldliness is not a wolf’s virtue.
Socialism is a beautiful concept, but it fails some of the worst facets of human nature. The reason we thrive in beehives is because beehives tend to use the worst facets of human nature to its advantage. Ant colonies cannot fathom these facets either.
The thing is - we are not animals. That is the entire premise of most of our civilization. That we are different. We talk differently, walk differently, look different. Our whole civilization has aimed towards setting itself apart. Then why are we retaining the worker efficacies of the animals we distance ourselves from?
Am I saying nothing works? No, I am saying we are not animals and should not be expected to behave like them in systems created for them. Where does this leave us?
Maybe we need a system that lets us be human. Considering both our best and worst facets. One that allow us to be excellent, and humble. To be individual yet collaborative. A system that doesn’t just tolerate our humanity but embraces it, chaos and all.
Because let’s face it: honey or crumbs aside, we’re meant for more.
Yours Truly,
