Pigeons and other natural systems

jdumars · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:35 pm Post subject: Pigeons and other natural systems

I was waiting at the train station the other day watching the pigeons mull around as a big group, aimlessly pecking at the ground for food. I happened to have some bread from my lunch left over, so I broke it into tiny pieces in my hand. I tossed one little bit out, then another. No pigeons took notice immediately. Then, a couple astute birds noticed and started walking toward me. By the time they had walked half the distance, the entire flock suddenly exploded into the air and toward me, flanking the original 2 or 3 pigeons and fighting aggresively for the bread as I tossed it out.

Now, a normal person may see this as simply "feeding the birds." But being a doomer, I see this and other natural interactions between groups of animals as an insight into the activities of groups of people competing for limited/scarce food. Watching those pigeons made me shiver with fear at the thought of similar circumstances when resources become scarce.

Meanwhile, I keep playing jazz.

PrairieMule

JDUMARS-

I have another correlation for you. We humans, like pigeons tend to deficate on our enviroment whenever we please with no regard. Keep it up with your field study, let me know if you need a grant!
_________________
In other words, it's a huge sh*t sandwich, and we're all gonna have to take a bite.-from Full Metal Jacket

Clouseau2

When I read this my first thought was "if people stopped feeding pigeons maybe there would be less pigeons to crap all over my house"

I had the same experience once in Berkeley. I had to get rid of some old clothes so I decided to dump them in a big bin they had out by People's park. I walked up with the bag, and I could practically feel my gait being scanned by the people close by. Before I had even finished dumping everything out, there were 6 or 7 half-crazed homeless people frantically fighting over the contents (I doubt they could even tell what they were struggling over yet).

Every society is 3 meals away from revolution. People are no different than those pigeons. As long as their needs are met they will live together mostly peacefully. Once the needs are not met, any atrocity can occur.