In this article, Lewis Thomas compares the human race to an army of ants because we share the trait of having "compulsive social behavior". "They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into wars, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves. They do everything but watch television". We are jealous of ants and bees because they can live in an interdependent society and still act like regular organisms. I agree with Thomas statement " If such things exist, they can have nothing to do with us." because the majority of humans can not live with the rules of interdependence. They seem to struggle to find mutuality in a group task especially when working with other colleagues that do not share the same ideas as you. On the other hand, ants do not even have to know each other to complete a task that requires more that one specie because they automatically have that instant relationship. "thousands of ants, crowded together around the Hill, ... you begin to see the whole beast.." "and as though given new orders by telephone, all the workers shift the search to the new twigs" Termites and bees live in collective societies and as a result have powerful colonies that know how to work with one another and prevent arguments from erupting. I envy these organisms because it is true that when humans try to cooperate in a group assignment there will always be arguments of those who didn't contribute to the group are just getting free points just by being lazy. If you try to tell them that they haven't done anything for the group project, they will immediately snap at you or make up an excuse in order to just "kick back". Those who had worked so hard to get a good grade will be angry at those lazy people who are bringing them down resulting into a conflict that could have been resolved if everyone just agreed with one another.
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