Kropotkin -vs- Darwin. Humanity, Cooperation and Mutual Aid -vs- Egoism and Pitiless Struggle; Socialism/Communism -vs- Competitive Capitalism/Darwinism. (Russia -vs- West)

[Александр]

This work is such a tremendous FRESH AIR for us... after reading-seeing &
being zombified by the "social Darwinists" with their endless examples of
pitiless and brutal struggle in the Nature (-> thus it "must be" between us
too!).

Rereading this wonderful work (now on English)...i meet again Kropotkin's
(and other researchers) great examples of mutual aid in the animal kingdom.

One of these examples is truly amazing:

Facts illustrating mutual aid amidst the termites, the ants, and the bees
> are so well known to the general reader, especially through the works of
> Romanes, L. Büchner, and Sir John Lubbock, that I may limit my remarks to a
> very few hints.(7*) If we take an ants' nest, we not only see that every
> description of work- rearing of progeny, foraging, building, rearing of
> aphides, and so on -- is performed according to the principles of voluntary
> mutual aid; we must also recognize, with Forel, that the chief, the
> fundamental feature of the life of many species of ants is the fact and the
> obligation for every ant of sharing its food, already swallowed and partly
> digested, with every member of the community which may apply for it. Two
> ants belonging to two different species or to two hostile nests, when they
> occasionally meet together, will avoid each other. But two ants belonging
> to the same nest or to the same colony of nests will approach each other,
> exchange a few movements with the antennae, and "if one of them is hungry
> or thirsty, and especially if the other has its crop full... it immediately
> asks for food." The individual thus requested never refuses; it sets apart
> its mandibles, takes a proper position, and regurgitates a drop of
> transparent fluid which is licked up by the hungry ant. Regurgitating food
> for other ants is so prominent a feature in the life of ants (at liberty),
> and it so constantly recurs both for feeding hungry comrades and for
> feeding larvae, that Forel considers the digestive tube of the ants as
> consisting of two different parts, one of which, the posterior, is for the
> special use of the individual, and the other, the anterior part, is chiefly
> for the use of the community. If an ant which has its crop full has been
> selfish enough to refuse feeding a comrade, it will be treated as an enemy,
> or even worse. If the refusal has been made while its kinsfolk were
> fighting with some other species, they will fall back upon the greedy
> individual with greater vehemence than even upon the enemies themselves.
> And if an ant has not refused to feed another ant belonging to an enemy
> species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter as a friend.
>
> All this is confirmed by most accurate observation and decisive
> experiments.(8*)
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