Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Dave vs. the Bees

Author:John Callender
Posted:8/13/2000; 12:04:24 PM
Topic:Dave vs. the Bees
Msg #:19678 (In response to 19677)
Prev/Next:19677 / 19679

That's an interesting view, but I'm not sure that the "genetic predisposition" explanation matches my own experience. Watching my toddler son playing around with bees in our garden, and having to instruct him about their ability to sting (and having it take an actual stinging before the lesson sank in) makes me think that the unreasoning fear around bee-ish-looking things isn't really a genetic predisposition, but is instead a learned behavior, albeit one learned early on, and operating at a very deep level.

The thing is, given your apparent awareness and appreciation of Eastern philosophies (your use of the term namasté, for example), it surprises me to see you offering a fear that you acknowledge to be irrational as justification for killing something.

I think I find this interesting because I've wrestled with these issues myself. For example, I've spent several years trying to overcome my own fear of spiders. My wife and I have had a long-running debate over whether it's appropriate to assume that any given spider wishes to bite any human it comes across. She's content to let me "rescue" spiders within our house, relocating them outside rather than smashing them on sight, but we disagree on the merits of teaching our toddler to fear all insects and spiders (with a few exceptions, like ladybugs and butterflies). She thinks that instilling such fear will reduce the chances of his being bitten by a black widow spider, or stung by a wasp, during the time it will take for him to learn to discriminate between harmful and harmless creatures on his own. I'm more concerned than she is about the long-term impact of warping his attitude towards the natural world in this way.

Anyway, to return to your bee problem, I don't think the fear of yellow-and-black-striped flying insects is necessarily a hardwired genetic constant in the Dave Winer program. It may actually represent a variable quantity, subject to runtime modification. If you were able to overcome your reflexive fight-or-flight response, you might find other solutions (ignoring the yellowjackets, or screening off part of the porch, or using those scented candles that purport to repel them) that would allow you to enjoy the outdoors while not having to speculate on what the wasps' last minutes in the bee trap were like. Overcoming such deep-rooted fears wouldn't be easy, of course, and most of the alternatives to bee traps have other costs that you would have to factor into your cost-benefit analysis. But it might be worth considering, if only as an intellectual thought experiment.

John

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