Ever since I watched Starship Troopers[1], I've been glad that bugs aren't bigger than us, at least on our planet. This essay explains why:
For every type of animal there is a most convenient size, and a large change in size inevitably carries with it a change of form.
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.
And this made me wonder if Kafka didn't know in The Metamorphosis that a bug the size of a man would be afraid of gravity, so it wouldn't hang from the ceiling, if it would even be able to:
An insect, therefore, is not afraid of gravity; it can fall without danger, and can cling to the ceiling with remarkably little trouble.
Which is, btw, an anti-war movie, not one glorifying war, but I guess the way the war against the bugs is portrayed wasn't ridiculous enough for most people to get it, or at least consider it. Or they just didn't want to get it, but just wanted another thing to, in German, echauffieren? Which is, btw, a very German thing to do, which is, I guess, why we have a special word for it. ↩
Good footnote. It's funny how successful Starship Troopers was at glorifying war for those who didn't get it and satirizing war for those who did.
It’s funny to think of it this way: the troopers are getting their asses kicked; one of them dies even though it’s like 20+ troopers against one bug, they’re torn to pieces, snapped in half while being recorded; even the cameraman dies, and later their brains are literally sucked out, but it’s glorifying war haha
I've always felt something similar to this phenomenon happened to Inglorious Bastards. The movie is about how easy it is to dehumanize people (nazis in this case) when you've got a handy reason...and yet I've always suspected its reception was as a badass WWII flick.
It's because the actors are all playing it straight and they win in the end.
I am definitely glad the wasps that come around this time of year are not bigger than us. That would be horrifying. But maybe Canada's gun laws would improve if we had to kill giant wasps to get to the car.
Maybe you'll get luck and a deranged billionaire will release giant wasps in Canada, like Bill Gates did with those ticks that cause meat allergies.
Wasn’t it in Canada where the police suggested people leave their car keys near the front door to avoid violence from thieves?
Haha. Something like that.
Yeah, that was a real Toronto police advisory from a while back! Literally telling citizens to make it easier for car thieves just to avoid a home invasion. Absolutely wild policy.