It was set in a 9-square-foot metal pen designed for 3,840 mice . They were provided unlimited food, water, and nesting material.
Four pairs of mice were introduced, leading to rapid reproduction, with the population peaking at just 2,200 mice.
As population density increased, social structure collapsed. Violent cliques were formed. Females stopped caring for young, abandoning or attacking them, leading to a 90% infant mortality. Many males became passive, focusing only on eating and grooming, abandoning mating and social interaction. Reproduction ceased entirely.
Despite having abundant food and no predators, the population collapsed due to severe behavioral dysfunction—the behavioral sink.
The population, while physically safe and still effectively with room to grow, experienced total social death, resulting in complete extinction.
Calhoun concluded that when almost all available space is filled and social roles are broken, the spirit (or social capacity) dies before the body. The experiment is often cited as a cautionary tale on the dangers of overpopulation and the loss of social purpose in a world without struggle.
The one difference is, the mice were in a confined space. Israel was basically a confined space for Jews to live in, freely withing borders set by other countries, but they have almost outgrown it and are now pushing to increase the space they have by stealing the arable land around them...and killing anyone who gets in their way. They are doing what they claimed should never again happen.
This sort of combines with the parable Brendan tells at the end of A Place of Safety-Home Not Home, about the seven tribes and how the Hebrews drove them out of their land and took it over. That was about three-thousand years ago...and today's actions prove not only that nothing changes, but even though we now have a good idea as to why it needs to change, we still do nothing about it.
I don't know if this makes any sense, but that's where my mind was, today...
No comments:
Post a Comment