Ah yes, here again -- another example of the waxwing slain by the false azure of the window pane. Well writ. Mike Geary On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 3:32 AM, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Mike: I draw Donal's attention to the recent (12/3/10) mass suicide of > red-winged blackbirds (5000) in Arkansas. Donal, no doubt believes they > killed themselves because they realized they were in Arkansas … but he's > wrong. > > > > > > Of course he is. Donal is almost always wrong when he speculates about the > motives of birds. On the other hand, you are wrong to conclude that birds > would protest Republican triumphalism, just as you are almost always wrong > when you speculate about suicides caused by Republican triumphalism. > > > > I think the birds were sad. Not suicidally sad, mind you, or in modern > parlance, > severely-depressed-but-not-so-depressed-as-to-be-incapable-of-action, but > rather the birds were sad enough to become sloppy, less attentive, a bit off > their game, under the weather, oppressed by the weight of the world. That’s > all it took. They were birds after all. One miscalculation and they were > just so many blood-soaked feathers. Not the love Emily Dickinson wrote > about. > > > > What were they sad about? I think they realized they were beasts, and > became sad about their own stupidity and ignorance. Not as a status thing, > mind you. Not by comparison to other animals. Just by itself. They realized > they were birds and that birds are stupid, ignorant automata and it made > them sad. > > > > For humans, this is bad news. Humans rely on status comparisons a lot. The > rest of us, who think we possess more stupidity and ignorance than our > fellow humans or even than birds, will feel obliged to feel sad too. Maybe > even sadder. Much sadder. Our reaction could snowball, or circle on an > updraft, out of control. > > > > I like my “I’ve lived a life of stupidity and ignorance and all I got was > this T-shirt” T-shirt, and don’t want to feel sad when I put it on. Nor do I > want to stop drinking from my “I’ve lived a life of stupidity and ignorance” > coffee mug. Plus being sad is…well, it’s not a happy place. > > > > So I hope our scientists will come up with a fallacious but believable > explanation for the dead birds, one that will stick. After all, what do we > pay them for? > > > > > > >