Comments on: Leaderless Ant Colonies? http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/295/leaderless-ant-colonies/ From the editors and publishers of Home Education Magazine Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:29:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Helen http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/295/leaderless-ant-colonies/#comment-11345 Helen Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:20:02 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/?p=295#comment-11345 And all this time I thought we were mere fruit flies... And all this time I thought we were mere fruit flies…

]]> By: Susan http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/295/leaderless-ant-colonies/#comment-11343 Susan Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:20:09 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/editorial/?p=295#comment-11343 Sometimes I feel like some want us on display in one of those ant farms to satisfy the extreme interest our homeschooling lives seem to have. I just had to look up leaderless ant colonies and this bbc article popped up: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4319739.stm "Having told us to consider the ant, Solomon points out that the ant "having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest". This is the perfect model for society as seen by the 18th Century philosopher Adam Smith (a big influence on the monetarist economics of "Thatcherism"). The decentralised organisation of the ant-hill suits his idea that the economy needs no government intervention because the market is self-regulating. It is also a blueprint for the ideal communist society as envisaged by Marx. The association of ants and the "communist menace" was seized on by Hollywood at the height of the Cold War. " My goodness...the power of those "leaderless ant colonies" is extreme. :-) Sometimes I feel like some want us on display in one of those ant farms to satisfy the extreme interest our homeschooling lives seem to have.

I just had to look up leaderless ant colonies and this bbc article popped up:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci.....319739.stm
“Having told us to consider the ant, Solomon points out that the ant “having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest”.

This is the perfect model for society as seen by the 18th Century philosopher Adam Smith (a big influence on the monetarist economics of “Thatcherism”).

The decentralised organisation of the ant-hill suits his idea that the economy needs no government intervention because the market is self-regulating.

It is also a blueprint for the ideal communist society as envisaged by Marx.

The association of ants and the “communist menace” was seized on by Hollywood at the height of the Cold War. ”

My goodness…the power of those “leaderless ant colonies” is extreme. :-)

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