Inexplicable Vandalism / Beware of Darkness

I read this morning about an incident in which perpetrators unknown have destroyed and burned scores of beehives.  People are baffled by this illogical act, which seems to raise concerns about the sort of person who would do such a thing.  Some thoughts come to my mind, and I'm going to give it a shot to put the incident in perspective.  (Once I get too unmotivated to do this sort of thing, I hope others will fill the need; it has to be done.)

[Added later: It turned out that the culprits were a pair of teenagers.  But this tells us little; who inspired these fellows to carry out their act of vandalism?  Most of the discussion below probably still applies.]

(1) First of all, bear in mind that this might just be disinformation, and the photograph might be one of either an incident in the distant past (In the killer bee days, perhaps?) or an altered photograph.

(2) Such a thing could actually happen; try not to be too shocked.  The first reason is: ignorance.  Not everyone knows that bees are essential to agriculture, and to the environment in ways too many to count.  This is why education in the broadest sense is so important, especially education in the home.  (We know that some parents work too hard to 'waste' time chatting to their offspring about things that seem so irrelevant to their lives as the importance of protecting bees.  We can excuse them, to a certain degree.  The problem of earning enough to support a comfortable lifestyle in the face of serious obstacles to it from the 1% is daunting.)

(3) It could have been that someone who hates bees, or is allergic to bee-stings, decided to go on a rampage in a fit of rage.  This is, again, a sort of ignorance.  Educated citizens do not lose their temper at the slightest thing.  We're talking about education in the broad sense, again.  Lots of students have learned their lessons well enough to answer their examinations very well.  But teachers are also learning, to focus their questions very narrowly, not to stray into concepts that might be politically sensitive.  This is not education.  We have to find good, mature, wise people to be our teachers, and then cut them a bit of slack and not micromanage the curriculum too much.  But unfortunately, school boards are notoriously filled with uneducated conservatives (or superficially educated folks), who have a deep distrust of book learning.  We have to live with this.  This is the price we pay for giving up elitism, and embracing universal education.  Remember, No Child Left Behind-type initiatives are broadly in line with the liberal agenda: we do not want weak students marginalized, because weak students are often (but not invariably, witness the leadership of the Education branch of the administration) minority students, and underprivileged students.  Conservatives want elitism the way it was when America Was Great, which is where these voucher programs are headed.  If you think it's complicated, it is, That I can tell you.  This country might not be great enough to do all we want its education system to do.

(4) Lastly, and I hope this is not the case, it (the vandalizing of the beehives) might have been done to put certain people in trouble.  Let's not focus on that possibility.  This is now not just ignorance; it is criminal.

As you can see, it comes down to a broad view of education.  Education is so important because, ironically, the size of the population, the influence of the twisted economic principles we live under, and the diverse population we have in the US puts great strains on the thinking of all adults, and some are just not up to the job.  This is why, on the one hand, the Christian Right is anxious for Christian moral principles to be spread widely; they hope that the fear of hell will make people think twice about burning bees.  This is also why some people want to reduce the diversity of the population (by deportation, by violence, and by creating an inhospitable atmosphere).  In the administration, it is not a matter of gut-level hatred; it is a calmly thought out policy.

It's easy to lose one's temper.  That's a form of self-gratification.

A wonderful song by George Harrison: Beware of Darkness



The lyrics seem to mean that one should protect oneself from unsuspected threats to your spiritual health from around one.

George Harrison (in case you didn't know -- he played Lead Guitar while with The Beatles, and was later a member of the Traveling Wilburys) was by no means a moral authority of any sort, but his thoughts were often insightful.  He frequently wrote songs that had these Yoda-like exhortations in them, revealing both great wisdom, and great innocence.

Ann Wilson, half the two-sister group Heart, has said that she wanted to sing protest songs in her youth.  She does a better job in this performance (IMHO) than George Harrison, or even Eric Clapton (Concert for George).  George, in his All things must pass album, adopted a less heavy beat, but after hearing a fully orchestrated version, it is hard for me to feel satisfied by a lightly-scored performance.  My guitar is tuned a tone lower, and I followed along playing the tune on D major, whereas it looked as though Eric Clapton (in Concert for George) was playing it on E.  What a lovely example of the sort of slow song that was popular in the late seventies!  Another one was All things must pass.

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