Nearly each day, I put breadcrumbs in my front or in my back garden for the smaller birds (eg, blackbird, robin, sparrow, starling). Sometimes, a pigeon lands in my garden. These birds really don’t look smart. Their heads annoyingly bend forward and backwards with each little step they take. That silly sight made me wonder why doves were chosen to represent peace. A 26 September 2016 science article in the NYT shed some light: “Pigeons Resist Misguided Leaders“.
The NYT article refers to a September 2016 study in Biology Letters, called “Misinformed leaders lose influence over pigeon flocks”. BL: “We demonstrate that in the majority of cases when leaders hold inaccurate information they lose their influence over the flock. In these cases, inaccurate information is filtered out through the rearrangement of hierarchical positions, preventing errors by former leaders from propagating down the hierarchy.”
It is tempting to compare the above with the chaos in the Republican Party and its Presidential nominee Donald Trump. Last week, more and more Republicans were leaving their misguided leader after yet another scandal. The most senior one was John McCain, who withdrew his support for Donald Trump. Instead of stepping down, the Republican leader vowed retaliation.
Several months ago, I watched one of the most intriguing movies ever: Er ist wieder da / Look who’s back. At a certain moment, Oliver Masucci, who plays Adolf Hitler, answers a question about his popularity along the following lines: “He is inside all of us”. I must admit this. I am just better in convincing myself that certain beliefs are fundamentally wrong. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have them. Every human being is susceptible to misguided beliefs.
In my blog of 19 September 2016, I finally figured out that my concept of the 7 Belief systems fits into the much bigger concept: of Needs, Wants and Beliefs.
Without any doubt, humans are represented in every single layer of the pyramid of Needs, Wants and Beliefs. Nature itself is only focussed on basic necessities (eg, food, light, shelter, water).
The medium layer is probably represented by primates, especially when looking at this 3 minute TED video by the international (and Dutch) primatologist Frans de Waal.
I think I should reassess my opinion about doves. At least they are capable of ditching misguided leaders while we humans keep following them until it’s too late.
Prince – When Doves Cry (1984) – artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
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