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Go to the Ant


            Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-7)

 
          Thoughts about the ants have changed. In Biblical times, the ant was considered as having no commander, overseer, or ruler. Then science came along and discovered that ant colonies had what the scientists called queens, soldiers, and drones, just as the societies around the scientists did. More recently, ants have been declared super-organisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony. Curiously, that sounds an awful lot like an ideal socialistic society.[1]n Fortunately for the scientists, it hasn’t really been considered that ant colonies are “nationalistic.” Each colony is a separate super-organism. No other colonies and no other “races” allowed, except as slaves.
          What is more interesting than the fact that theories about ant colony organization following the social construction perspective predominant in the scientific community in which the theory developed is the fact that Solomon had it right. They have no commander, overseer or ruler. They don’t need one, they are hardwired to work.   
          On the other hand, the sluggard seems to need a commander, overseer or ruler... someone who will not only tell them what to do, but who will require it of them or address the consequences of the sluggard’s failure to act.
         As I think about sluggards, as Solomon describes them here, another thought comes to mind. Generally, I think of a sluggard as someone who won’t clean his room, doesn’t do her dishes right after dinner, etc. A lazy slob. Today, I’m wondering if a sluggard is different. What if a sluggard could be a neat and tidy person who works at a well-paying job, but who spends his income, doing everything with the here and now in mind? Money earned is spent first to pay bills, but after that, on whatever happens to catch the eye, with no thought to the future? 
         The only thing that idea seems to do to my understanding of sluggards is to expand it beyond the lazy ne’er do wells.


[1] “Politics may play some role in the positive way the scientists surveyed judge the times. More than half of the scientists surveyed (55%) say they are Democrats, compared with 35% of the public. Fully 52% of the scientists call themselves liberals; among the public, just 20% describe themselves as liberals. Many of the scientists surveyed mentioned in their open-ended comments that they were optimistic about the Obama administration’s likely impact on science.” (Pew su rvey of 2533 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science done May 1-Juen 14, 2009
 

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