Owls really are incredible creatures. Why else would they be given the task of carrying all of Hogwart's mail. But really, there are more than 150 species of owls in the world! They can be found in just about every kind of environment. They even have different shaped and positioned ears so that they can hear better and let them know where their prey is. Also, in order to assist their hearing, the owl's facial disk funnels sounds to their ears. When owls are together, they are called a parliament; however, they are extremely solitary animals. It is also worth mentioning that they are very competitive and carnivorous animals eating rodents, small or medium sized mammals, nocturnal insects, fish, and even other birds! One could even compare owls to capitalists, much of their life is spent competing independently of other animals to advance their status, or merely survive. Conversely, there are "cooperative" or "communal" birds such as the the acorn woodpecker. Communal birds are much more social, and two adult birds take part in raising the young. Only 3% of the birds in the world are communal. So, while owls and acorn woodpeckers live different lives, they have both managed to survive. There are pros and cons to both ways of living based on what environment they live in. Likewise, there are pros and cons to capitalist and socialst societies. While Socialism is not very popular, like the 3% of communal birds, it still has its benefits. People need to look to our avian friends and realize there are multiple ways of living life, and there is no one right answer to how things should work.
Sources:
http://birding.about.com/od/birdprofiles/a/20-Fun-Facts-About-Owls.htm
http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Cooperative_Breeding.html
While I agree with you that Owls are Superbly awesome, socialism is like the owl pellet coughed up after consumption of rats and other rodents. It takes out the neccesities for survival (meat) and leaves our everything that gives shape to society(bones, hair, sometimes moustaches).
ReplyDeleteJackson, that's a funny line about socialism. Are you saying that socialism reduces everything to bare survival?
ReplyDeleteI think in both Blake's post and in Jackson's line appears one of the dilemmas about talking about problems like "socialism" and "capitalism" in general, and especially in terms of Smith and Marx. Remember, for Smith, capitalism is really an example of the sociability of humans--he would compare it to the social birds, not the lonely owl. It only appears superficially to be individualist, while actually bringing about very substantial cooperation and sharing.
Ironically, Marx, unlike Smith, saw economic systems built on private property as deeply selfish and individualist. In many ways, he kept Smith's framework but brought back Mandeville's assumptions about motives.
I like your post Blake! I think its interesting we generally think that a social environment is way more fun, but in our business world we generally are very individualistic and in our interaction with strangers. I think it's just more fun when we're in a social environment
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