despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage

bleach

Banned
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1644264/pdf/procrsmed00338-0007.pdf

Hierarchy of groups: Productivity of a group
may be taken as an index of its social status. The
fourteen brood groups may thus be ranked with
rank No. 1 assigned to the group which produced
111 young, and rank No. 14 to the one which
produced only 13 young. Plotting the number of
young produced as a function of this ranking
(Fig 4) reflects a remarkable hierarchical ordering
within the total social system. This type of ordering
is identical to that which results when we
examine the degree of activity exhibited by the
several males of an interacting group. The most
dominant male is the most active one, and as
social dominance declines so does the degree of
activity. Such activity is termed 'social velocity'
(Calhoun 1963, 1967, 1971). Our studies show
that in a group of 14 males social velocity declines
linearly with rank with approximately the same
slope as in Fig 4. Each of the brood groups had
associated with it a male which was territorially
dominant within an area on the floor roughly
coinciding with the sectors shown in Fig 3. All
the ranges of these territorial males overlapped
near the centre of the universe. The most dominant
male was always associated with the brood
group that produced the most young, and the
degree of dominance of the other territorial males
tended to be reflected by the productivity of
females associated with them.
Both bilateral and hierarchical social organization
during Phase B contributed to a maximum
exploitation of resources that led to an explosive
rate of increase of the population. At the end of
this phase all the most desirable physical space
was filled with organized social groups. These 14
social groups totalled 150 adults. On average each
group contained over 10 individuals including a
territorial male, associated males and females,
and their juvenile and subadult progeny. At the
end of Phase B there were 470 of these immature
mice that had experienced good maternal care and
early socialization. Thus there were over three
times as many younger animals as the socially
established older ones. This number is far greater
than would have existed had the normal ecological
mortality factors functioned.
Inhibited Secondary Population Growth,
the Stagnation Phase C
Beginning at Day 315 after colonization and continuing
for 245 more days, the population grew
at a much slower rate, doubling only every 145
days rather than each 55 days as in Phase B. Let
us examine the circumstances surrounding this
decline in rate of population growth. In the
normal course of events in a natural ecological
setting somewhat more young survive to maturity
than are necessary to replace their dying or
senescent established associates. The excess that
find no social niches emigrate. However, in my
experimental universe there was no opportunity
for emigration. As the unusually large number of
young gained adulthood they had to remain, and
they did contest for roles in the filled social
system. Males who failed withdrew physically and
psychologically; they became very inactive and
aggregated in large pools near the centre of the
floor of the universe. From this point on they no
longer initiated interaction with their established
associates, nor did their behaviour elicit attack by
territorial males. Even so, they became characterized
by many wounds and much scar tissue as
a result of attacks by other withdrawn males.
Return of 2 or more males, who had gone to eat
and drink, marked an abrupt shift in the level of
ambient stimuli for their quiescent associates.
Resultant excitation often precipitated one of the
resting males into an attack upon his other withdrawn
associates who, having lost the capacity
for fleeing, remained relatively immobile despite
receiving vicious attacks. A mouse so attacked
would at a later time become an attacker.
Female counterparts of these withdrawn males
tended to withdraw to higher level boxes that
were less preferred by females with litters. Such
females were not charactetized by the violent
aggression of the withdrawn males.
As a result of the extreme demands made on
territorial males to reject maturing associates,
their ability to continue territorial defence
declined. Gradually the frequency of this involvement
in territorial defence declined as did the
area defended. This left nursing females more
exposed to invasion of their nest sites. Normally
nursing females in the presence of territorial
males exhibit little aggression. However, in
response to invasion of nest sites and bases of
ramps leading to them, the nursing females did
become aggressive, essentially taking over the role
ofthe territorial males. This aggression generalized
to their own young who were attacked, wounded,
and forced to leave home several days before
normal weaning. During Phase C the incidence
of conception declined, and resorption of feetuses
increased. Maternal behaviour also became disrupted.
Young were often wounded in the delivery
process. Females transported their young to
several sites, during which process some were
abandoned. Many litters of a young age on one
survey disappeared before the next survey. Such
abandoning of young following survey disturbance
is a particularly sensitive index of dissolution
of maternal behaviour. The combined effect
of these several factors affecting reduced conception,
increased feetal mortality and increased
preweaning mortality largely accounts for the
abrupt decline in rate of population growth
characterizing Phase C. For all practical purposes
there had been a death of societal organization by
the end of Phase C.
Decline ofPopulation Size,
the Death Phase D
Population increase abruptly ceased on Day 560
after colonization. A few mice born up until Day
600 survived past weaning. Between these times
deaths just slightly exceeded births. Beyond the
time of the last surviving birth on Day 600 the
incidence of pregnancies declined very rapidly
with no young surviving. Last conception was
about Day 920. With the increase in rate of
mortality accompanying senescence the population
has continued to decline in numbers. By
March 1 1972, the average age of survivors was
776 days, over 200 days beyond menopause. On
June 22 1972, there were only 122 (22 male, 100
female) survivors. Projection of the prior few
months of exponential decline in numbers indicates
that the last surviving male will be dead on
May 23 1973, 1780 days after colonization. The
population will be, reproductively, definitely dead
at that time, although such death was predicted
by 700 days after colonization. This demise of a
population contradicts prior knowledge which
indicates that when a population declines to a
few remnant groups, some individuals will
reinitiate its growth.
Turning back to the end of Phase C, the seeds
for eventual destruction may already be seen to
have been sown. By midway in Phase C essentially
all young were prematurely rejected by their
mothers. They started independent life without
having developed adequate affective bonds. Then
as they moved out into an already dense population
population
many attempts to engage in social interaction
were mechanically disrupted by passage of other
mice. Lastly, I have shown (Calhoun 1963) that
in proportion to the extent that the group size
exceeds the optimum, maximizing gratification
from such interactions necessitates a decrease in
the intensity and duration of such behaviours.
This fragments otherwise more complex behaviours.
As a result of these three processes
(failure to develop early social bonding, mechanical
interference with developing social behaviours
and fragmentation of behaviours) maturation of
the more complex social behaviours such as those
involved in courtship, maternality and aggression
failed. For females a clear example may be taken
from a 2 cell universe studied in parallel with the
16 cell one detailed here. The members of this
population were killed 300 days after the inflection
point of the shift from Phase C to Phase D.
Among these were 148 females born within the
last 50 days before the end of Phase C. At autopsy
at a median age of 334 days only 18% had ever
conceived (i.e. no placental scars in the uteri of
82% of the females) and only 2% were pregnant
(each of these 3 females had only one embryo as
contrasted to the more normal 5 or more). By
this age most females in a normal population
would have had five or more litters, most of them
successfully reared.
Male counterparts to these non-reproducing
females we soon dubbed the 'beautiful ones'.
They never engaged in sexual approaches toward
females, and they never engaged in fighting, and
so they had no wound or scar tissue. Thus their
pelage remained in excellent condition. Their
behavioural repertoire became largely confined to
eating, drinking, sleeping and grooming, none of
which carried any social implications beyond that
represented by contiguity of bodies.
Most of the last half of the population born in
the 16 cell universe were fully or largely like
these non-reproducing females and these 'beautiful
ones' (males). As their formerly more competent
predecessors gradually became senescent,
their already disrupted capacity for reproduction
terminated. At this time only the 'beautiful one'
category of males, and their counterpart females,
remained at an age normally compatible with
reproduction, but they had long since failed to
develop this capacity.
My colleague, Dr Halsey Marsden (1972), conducted
several studies during the mid-third of
Phase D in which he placed small groups of mice
out of these crowded populations into new
universes at very low densities. All groups
exhibited nearly total loss of capacity for developing
a structured society or for engaging in the full
repertoire of reproductive behaviours. Even
placing them with adequate sex partners of the
opposite sex, that had matured in uncrowded
conditions, also gave very little indication of
retention of any adequate reproductive behaviour.
Conclusion
The results obtained in this study should be
obtained when customary causes of mortality
become markedly reduced in any species of
mammal whose members form social groups.
Reduction of bodily death (i.e. 'the second death')
culminates in survival of an excessive number of
individuals that have developed the potentiality
for occupying the social roles characteristic of the
species. Within a few generations all such roles in
all physical space available to the species are
filled. At this time, the continuing high survival
of many individuals to sexual and behavioural
maturity culminates in the presence of many
young adults capable of involvement in appropriate
species-specific activities. However, there
are few opportunities for fulfilling these potentialities.
In seeking such fulfilment they compete
for social role occupancy with the older established
members of the community. This competition is
so severe that it simultaneously leads to the nearly
total breakdown of all normal behaviour by both
the contestors and the established adults of both
sexes. Normal social organization (i.e. 'the establishment')
breaks down, it 'dies'.
Young born during such social dissolution are
rejected by their mothers and other adult associates.
This early failure of social bonding
becomes compounded by interruption of action
cycles due to the mechanical interference resulting
from the high contact rate among individuals
living in a high density population. High contact
rate further fragments behaviour as a result of the
stochastics of social interactions which demand
that, in order to maximize gratification from social
interaction, intensity and duration of social
interaction must be reduced in proportion to the
degree that the group size exceeds the optimum.
Autistic-like creatures, capable only of the most
simple behaviours compatible with physiological
survival, emerge out of this process. Their spirit
has died ('the first death'). They are no longer
capable of executing the more complex behaviours
compatible with species survival. The species in
such settings die.
For an animal so simple as a mouse, the most
complex behaviours involve the interrelated set of
courtship, maternal care, territorial defence and
hierarchical intragroup and intergroup social
organization. When behaviours related to these
functions fail to mature, there is no development
of social organization and no reproduction. As
in the case of my study reported above, all members
of the population will age and eventually die.
The species will die out.
For an animal so complex as man, there is no
logical reason why a comparable sequence of
events should not also lead to species extinction.
If opportunities for role fulfilment fall far short
of the demand by those capable of filling roles,
and having expectancies to do so, only violence
and disruption of social organization can follow.
Individuals born under these circumstances wilt
be so out of touch with reality as to be incapable
even of alienation. Their most-complex behaviours
will become fragmented. Acquisition, creation
and utilization of ideas appropriate for life in a
post-industrial cultural-conceptual-technological
society will have been blocked. Just as biological
generativity in the mouse involves this species'
most complex behaviours, so does ideational
generativity for man. Loss of these respective
complex behaviours means death of the species.
Mortality, bodily death = the second death
Drastic reduction of mortality
=death of the second death
=death squared
=(death)2
(Death)2 leads to dissolution of social organization
=death of the establishment
Death of the establishment leads to spiritual death
=loss of capacity to engage in behaviours essential to
species survival
=the first death
Therefore:
(Death)2 =the first death.
 

coyote

Well-known member
For an animal so complex as man, there is no
logical reason why a comparable sequence of
events should not also lead to species extinction.

yet we build our own cages

of concrete, glass, and steel

and enter them voluntarily
 
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