ant hills

ants and men. i often question the existence of ants during the summer. i manage to wander into a fire ant pile at least once a year. as a kid i was ant-bitten on a regular basis since most of my time was spent in the grass or in bushes or even in trees (yes, they climb trees and they will bite you even if it's not their tree.)

ants are strong willed and single-minded. if you get in their way they will bite the crap out of you. they are precisely created and equipped to fulfill 3 purposes; protect the colony, protect the queen, bite people. as far as advanced science has been able to tell there is little else ants worry about. everything they do concerns their mission. eating is necessary in order to protect the queen and the colony, and to bite the crap out of people. sleeping, if they sleep (there has been no documented proof of ants actually sleeping,) would theoretically be necessary to stay awake in order to protect the queen and the colony, and to bite the crap out of people. arguably ants are necessary only to spite mankind.

are there any ants that have broken the mold by throwing off the bondage of societal expectation? are there any parent ants ashamed and aghast of their children ants who have run off to find freedom and individuality at the expense of the parent's values? we never hear about those ants. unfortunately when we see that lone ant we can hardly ask and expect a reasonable answer. ants are viciously self-absorbed. so perhaps there actually are free-thinking ants out there while we believe every one of them to be following blind instinct or social pressure. maybe there are entire colonies that differ politically from others. how could we know?