After nearly completing a course that focused on studying the United States as a foreign culture, the material covered kept making me wonder about one thing: Is the main point of American culture and mythology to train us to not be self-aware? On the side, I had been reading a book based on the dark possibility of humanity being based on a wretched illusion (Kult). So I decided to try and learn if I was part of some illusion, wretched or otherwise. After watching the movie "Antz," I realized that it did not take much of a stretch of the imagination to turn ants into humans… and not just humans… Americans.

It was all too easy to turn a colony of ants into a model of America and I began to wonder why this was not bothering people.

Before the class began, I was aware that much of America was a lie. I knew we had a mythology that completely failed to match reality, but I wasn’t too concerned with it. It even seemed that I was getting used to being lied to. Politicians lied, teachers lied, parents lied, everyone lied… but I tended to dismiss it as a rather benign mythology. Eventually I began to wonder how harmless the mythology actually was.

After making up my mind that it was quite feasible that American culture and its mythology were a malicious lie, I set off to figure out if that very hypothesis was very defendable. The more I thought about the issue, the more I thought it was. I began digging a little deeper into ant sociology and the more stuff I learned about the little critters, the more similarities I found between them and Americans. Through the readings offered in the United States as a foreign culture course, I had learned that a "foreigner’s" view of America could be extremely valuable and provide some wonderful insights. But in the end, this seemed to fall a little short of answering the questions I had in my mind. Often I learned what particular "weird things" about American culture did for Americans (e.g. Does football provide a model for American corporations? [Montague]), but I did not feel like the whole picture was being captured. I felt like I was only getting "glimmerings" of a "bigger picture." I was left wondering whether or not I was trapped in a vicious mythology instead of the benign one I had envisioned before.

I became quite convinced that by looking into ants, I could learn something useful about American culture as well. Ants seemed to be a possible "big picture" on a small scale and I wanted to learn if the American "big picture" was actually similar to that of the small realm of ants. Comparison sprung to life. Living ants obviously aren’t American, or any other nationality that I can discern, but I quickly learned that they do share tons of similarities with Americans and many other nations.

Determined to escape any possible illusions, I started paying close attention to my ant farm, began reading some books on ants and tried to design a project that would capture a possible "big picture" of American culture and mythology. Initially I thought that human interviews would provide the greatest insights into the American condition and the purpose of American culture and mythology. I tried to design questions that would secretly draw the truth out of informants but I found that they were either leading questions or too vague. Informant replies had no discernable pattern that I could comprehend. I found that the study of ants was providing me with more "refreshing" (horrifying?) insights than the interviews. In the end, I decided to use a great deal of research in tandem with key tidbits from written questionnaires.

I felt that the most important aspect for this particular project was learning about ants. I had lived my entire life as an American and spent nearly an entire semester directly studying American culture. I therefore decided that the place I was truly lacking knowledge was in my knowledge of ants. My initial step was filling in the huge void in my knowledge of ants. I began by paying close attention to the behavior and characteristics of my ant farm and the ants near my home.

Step 1- Observing the Ant Farm

The ant farm consists of one large central chamber, called the metropolis, and three smaller cells, called farms. All parts are connected with clear tubing. The colony consists solely of female "worker" ants and there are also eight silverfish scavenging amongst the ants unmolested. They are in a closed system and are unable to provide their own subsistence. I act as an importer of fine cuisine (feeding them crickets, sugar, water, bananas, and whatever else I can manage).

Step 2- Observing Natural Ants

Fortunately, there are several ant communities by my home, and one that has penetrated it. I watched ant activity on a nearly daily basis. There were two main communities I focused on; one black ant community that raids our kitchen daily and one red ant community in a field by our horse food. The red anthill mentioned above provided the females in my ant farm and I watched them cope with me digging up their anthill in search of their queen.

Step 3- Written Information Gathering

Knowing that there was much to learn about ants, I hit the library and internet in search of information. I was pleased to turn up a horde of information from both locations.

Step 4- Questions and Answers

Early on I decided to create a questionnaire to give people that would attempt to find out how similar they were to ants without letting them know that the questions were "ant-orientated" until the end of the questionnaire. I redid the questionnaire three times and finally settled on a set of nineteen questions. However, this proved to be extremely difficult and the answers proved too diverse to be of much use to me. There were occasional great insights, but overall, my questionnaire failed to get information that worked either for or against my hypothesis.

Step 5- Discussion

In the end, I resorted to discussion with my informants about my hypothesis. The discussions were fruitful, but there was generally no universal agreement. Some informants violently disagreed with me while others readily accepted the hypothesis. This prompted me to attempt to further formalize my hypothesis in order to present it more fully as a defendable argument with facts behind it. Those informants who aggressively disagreed with the ant comparison lacked strong counter arguments, but this was quite understandable since they had very little time to think about it or research the problem. One informant all but shouted, "I am not a slave!" and that made me realize that I was dealing with an extremely sensitive topic.

Step 6- Comparison

Attempting to formalize an argument, I gathered all the information I had collected and began drawing similarities and differences. From these, I searched for evidence that worked either for or against my hypothesis. The focus of the project shifted away from the interviews and toward a research and comparison model. Using both the similarities and differences, I tried to mine the data for conclusions about the "big picture" of American culture, mythology and organization. I was seeking more "objective" information than I was getting from my interviews and needed to produce a consistent frame of thought that had been previously missing.

It is necessary to understand that there are a vast number of similarities and differences between Americans and ants. In fact, there are so many that it would be impossible for me to go into all them. Both the similarities and the differences can provide insights into the true function of American culture and mythology and its structure. It took a little perseverance, but by studying ant sociology and organization I think I came up with a defendable argument for believing that American mythology can be viewed as a malicious device (that strangely works in a beneficial way). In order to argue that American mythology functions to keep Americans from understanding that their society is little more than a super ant colony, I had to begin by researching the question, "How similar are Americans to ants?"

To answer the question raised above, I had to do a lot of studying. I began by viewing both Americans and ants as "super-organisms" (Holldobler, 107). By this, I mean that they are one entity made of numerous individual components. I then began comparing the two super-organisms to discover their attributes. I started off by finding out the main concerns of the ant super-organism. According to William Wheeler, "...ants, like all other living organisms, pursue the three-fold aim of securing food, perpetuating their species, and shielding themselves and their offspring from enemies and the inclemencies of a changing physical environment, I may properly include my remarks under the general heads of nutrition, protection and reproduction" (Wheeler, 175). It is reasonable to believe that the American super-organism has the same basic desires/needs. Both the ant super-organism and the American one have created massive amounts of specialized sub-organisms in order to provide for these things.

The American super-organism has created incredible amounts of specialized sub-organisms in order to provide for its subsistence. The same is true of the ant super-organism. Both super-organisms have large numbers of sub-organisms that are incapable of providing for their daily subsistence on their own. Taken as a whole, both super-organisms are quite effective at providing adequate subsistence for the majority of their sub-organisms, which in turn keeps the super-organism "living" well (1).

The American super-organism is quite successful at perpetuating itself. Since the time it could be called an "American" super-organism, it has experienced rampant growth. One needs only to live in an area for a period of some twenty years to understand that all parts of the American super-organism are growing quickly. The sub-organisms of the American super-organism are also reproducing effectively. The same things can be said about the vast majority of ants. Once a super-organism establishes itself, it experiences rapid growth until it splits to begin a new super-organism. Both the American and ant super-organisms have intricate methods of maintaining increasing populations and growth (Crompton, 95).

The American super-organism is also excellent at defending itself. It creates sub-organisms that defend the super-organism, it draws imaginary lines (national borders) to keep other "colonies" from penetrating its domain and it keeps a vast arsenal of weapons to defend itself against others and the environment. The ant super-organism does the same things. It uses chemical weapons, powerful mandibles, soldiers, chemical boundaries, antibacterial secretions and many other things to eliminate threats from other organisms and the environment (Holldobler, 85).

Both super-organisms are structured quite similarly. Both have few individuals occupying the upper castes/classes compared to those in the lower echelons. An ant colony has an oversized queen that can be viewed as the originator of all things. The queen gives birth to all the castes and takes a disproportionate share of food and resources. Often the queen ant is incapable of doing much more than reproducing. The colony of ants requires that the queen be defended in order to survive. Without the queen, the colony falls into a state of chaos and eventually dies (Holldobler, 38). The queen dictates the domain of the ants and their numbers. Below the queen there are hordes of different specialized ants in different ant species. There are ants dedicated to waging war (chemical and physical), nursing, harvesting, tunneling, mating, and a variety of other tasks (Leikand, 109). The high degree of specialization often means that many of the ant castes cannot survive without the assistance of others. Ants exist in a context where they are extremely dependent on one another for survival (2). Produce is often funneled upward in ant societies, with higher castes (such as the queen) receiving more produce than working or slave castes.

The American super-organism can be viewed as having a queen as well. The oversized queen could be viewed as the governmental agencies. The government eventually dictates which castes will be present in society just as a queen does for ants (e.g. There is no farming caste in a national forest). It sets levels of unemployment, wealth distribution, etc. The government is quite incapable of providing for its own needs and requires an extremely elaborate network of "lower classes" in order to survive. It does not provide for its own food or protection. Instead, it relies on working classes and soldier classes. The government fiercely works to instill the belief that without it, the nation would fall apart into a state of disarray (hence the derogative connotation of the word "anarchy"). The lower castes or classes have specialized tremendously and are quite similar to specialized ants. The vast majority of Americans are incapable of providing for their own defense and subsistence. The government indirectly influences the number of offspring lower classes may have through the use of taxation, etc. Wealth is funneled upward as demonstrated by the statistic which shows that 41.9% of wealth goes to the top one fifth of the population and 4.7% to the lower fifth of the population (Lewellen, 43). Americans and ants are very similar in how they maintain social status. "A few larvae are being fed extra food to grow hopefully into winged females to become queens and establish new colonies" (3). Like ants, Americans "feed" certain members of their society additional "food" (wealth, privileges, etc.) so that they will become the higher classes, by no real virtue of their own.

I have shown a way that the super-organism of America and the super-organism of the ant can be seen as quite similar in their essence. Now it is time to see how the sub-organisms stack up to each other in America and ant colonies. This is the point where I believe that the differences are more important and noticeable than the similarities. It is important to note the similarities nonetheless. When I asked Americans questions about themselves and individuals in America they provided me with a wealth of contradictions. One person said that the typical American was an "overworked, underpaid, stressed-out, mine-is-better-than-yours materialist" while another said that the typical American is the person who "comes out of the woodwork when there is a tragedy." Another person said typical Americans are dreamers and those who watch Jerry Springer, yet these two groups seem to be polar opposites. People tended to have an extremely difficult time pinning down their idea of what a "typical" American was. I believe this is due to the massive amount of specialization in America. There appears to be a central mythology that Americans cling to, yet every person in the society has different tasks and lifestyles. Ants are quite similar. There are many different castes in ant society (which vary according to species). Ants, like Americans, have often become extremely specialized. Americans appear to run around in their daily lives without questioning their existence or how they got to be where they are in life in the same way I believe ants fail to be self-aware.

I would say that the typical American is a person who believes in the great American myth. Such a person believes that hard work, strong ethics and a sharp wit can make them president of the United States... if they just try hard enough. This person believes that all people were created equal and hopes to live in a nuclear family. They work for as big of a piece of the American pie as they can get. They do their best to provide adequate protection, food and prosperity for their 2.3 children. They believe that America is number one and the promised land. This is at least what American mythology tells us we should be as typical Americans.

Curiously, when I asked people to pick what caste of ant they felt most represented them they chose the slave or the worker ant. This did not seem to match with my description of the typical American though. Most informants were quite capable of providing me a long list of how great and free they were, but when I mentioned the possibility of them being little more than worker ants in American society, they became extremely upset. I seemed to touch an exposed nerve. However, some had a cool acceptance of this "fact" and would reply with something like, "That’s true, but I still find ways to have fun."

Okay, okay... I think it is fair to say that ants lack a true culture and mythology. They have a society (hence we call them social insects), but they do not appear to have the ability to become self-aware or create a full culture and mythology for themselves. My most important point is to observe these very facts. To restate it, ants lack culture, mythology and the potential to be self-aware and Americans don’t. Despite these differences, I feel I have established that ants and Americans as a whole are quite similar. It is now time to investigate the purpose of culture and mythology.

Is it possible that American culture and mythology function to keep Americans from realizing their pitiful condition? I take it as a basic premise that Americans have the potential to be fully self-aware. Would Americans be very content if they came to understand that they were little more than gears in a massive machine? Would they like to know that they are simple workers who have the fruit of their labors funneled up to the truly wealthy and powerful? Would the typical American like to come to terms with personal insignificance? Would the queen like her minions to understand their lot in life? My answer in short is no.

A little thought experiment about an anthill may be called for at this point. Suppose there was an anthill where everything was going quite as normal. One day a weed started growing nearby. A curious little ant decided to try eating the weed without the queen’s permission. To his horror he suddenly became self-aware. "*gulp* I don’t think I should have eaten that weed. I’m just a little slave who is being exploited. I have massive potential and I’m forced to do things against my will every day.... *gulp* MOMMA!"

A second ant came out harvesting and saw his friend cuddled up in a nice little fetal position. While pondering how he could help his friend, he clipped a small piece of the nearby weed off and thoughtlessly chewed on it. "*gulp* I’ve been harvesting for minimum wage all this time? I only get a tiny fraction of what I produce? That evil wench wanted me to join her army to protect her greedy ass?! And why is it that the queen gets all the food? ...Hey, this really PISSES ME OFF!"

Before anyone could blink in the colony, about half of the population was curled up into the fetal position and half were marching on the anthill armed. Suddenly the anthill was destroyed and the happy little illusion was shattered forever.

Meanwhile, back in America, the government was busy watching the anthill’s demise. The president decided that he really didn’t want to suffer the same fate as the queen so they started to devise a way to keep people happy and productive. Rather brilliantly, one of them thought up a grandiose mythology. In it, everyone could believe they could become the president, everyone was equal, everyone could climb the "anthill" of success, everyone was part of the number one nation, everyone lived in the promise land, nothing was wrong with society—there were just things wrong with individuals. The system was set up so that an occasional "success story" could happen, but the odds of success stories were to be extremely low. That way "success stories" could be touted to all as proof that the mythology was real.

And life was happy in America. I believe that that is the point of American mythology and culture. It functions to keep Americans from realizing their lot in life and also keeps them from possibly destroying the anthill. So in one way it is malicious. In another, it keeps the anthill intact which might be a good thing. American mythology and culture are needed in order to keep everyone acting like ants (work from 9 to 5, go to the grocery store, buy toys for the kids, pay taxes…). I do not wish to claim that America is the only nation that uses its culture and mythology for this purpose. I believe that in the grand scheme of things, that is the purpose of culture and mythology in general in today’s world. They work to keep the anthill running and growing. Culture represents the mass of knowledge, expression and functionality that works in a given circumstance (or at least one of the many that works), while mythology functions to keep the populace happy about their situation. Mythology provides a limited escape from reality and allows Americans to believe things that are clearly repugnant to an outside and unbiased observer who truly loves freedom and equality. Instead of becoming self-aware of their situations, Americans are invited to accept a culture and a mythology that allows them to believe they are existing in a utopia. It appears a fairly basic desire to live in a utopia rather than live the life of servitude or as a gear in a machine. There is only one thing asked by America of its citizens in order for them to live in a beautiful utopia. That one thing is imagination. And imagination appears to be a small price pay for living in a utopia.

So what have I learned by comparing Americans to ants? In my opinion, if Americans do pay the price of using their imagination instead of facing the reality of their situation, they are essentially curling up into the fetal position and giving up. It appears that it would be a better idea to kick the "anthill" and stir it up a little bit. The aim of this essay is not to kick the anthill so hard as to destroy it or even pretend to destroy it, but merely to kick it hard enough to wake a few "ants" up. I think it would be a far better thing to accept the reality of our situation as Americans and then decide if we want to live with it, for the greater good of the anthill, or if we want to change it, for the greater good of the individuals. There might very well be other options as well. However, there is a very real possibility that it may be time to dig up the anthill and build a better one. Making a decision about what course of action to take would be something unfair to ask of me alone. It is a question that should be presented to all Americans and then a choice made by them. This is supposed to be a democracy, isn’t it?

Crompton, John. Ways of the Ant. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, (1954).

Holldobler, Bert, and Edward O. Wilson. Journey to the Ants. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, (1994).

Jonsson, Gunilla, and Michael Petersen. Kult: Death is Only the Beginning. Metropolis Ltd., Washington D.C., (1993).

Leikind, Bernard. "What is the Ant, Sir?" Skeptic 4:1 (1996): 108-109.

Lewellen, Ted C. "Individualism and Hierarchy: A Grid/Group Analysis of American Political Culture," PoLAR 16:3 (1993): 39-48.

Montague, Susan P., and Robert Morais. "Football Games and Rock Concerts: The Ritual Encactment of American Success Models," in The American Dimension: Cultural Myths and Social Realities, eds. William Arens and Susan P. Montague. Port Washington, NY: Alfred Publishing (1976): 33-52.

Wheeler, William Morton. Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior. Columbia University Press, New York, (1910).

(1) http://members.aol.com/dinarda/ant/pforage.html (Foraging Strategies)

(2) http://www.imsc.ernet.in/~tabish/animals/ants.html (The Ant Society)

(3) http://www.renc.igs.net/~fritzi/Ants.html (Ants)

http://cuba.k12.nm.us/ces/nature/ants.htm (Ant Activities - Background Information)

http://www.ionet.net/~rdavis/antics.shtml (The Ant Thology Home page- Richard Davis) All graphics used.

Return to The Ant Farm's Reading Room.