Crabs in a Bucket September 4, 2006
Posted by tkcollier in Geopolitics, Life.trackback
Anecdotal story from a letter to a USVI web-site:
Nature has parodies that mimic human social structures. If you have ever gone to the shore to gather a tasty of dinner of crabs you have seen crabs in a bucket with no lid, but they do not escape. As soon as a crab gains a claw-hold, on the edge of the bucket it is pulled back in by the weight of others who hang on. Two or three smart crabs working together get things done and are able to crawl out of the bucket together. They are like little Ninjas. One crab gets a hold of the edge of the bucket, another one, gets up under him and pushes with all his might. The third crab seeing the idea decides, to position himself under the second crab and they push the top guy up and over to freedom. The key is to hold on tight and the momentum of the top little guy falling into the abyss of freedom pulls the other two up and over the edge of the bucket. I think I have actually seen theses little guys scurry to the water laughing and never looking back at the other fools stuck in the bucket. That is how the best and brightest leave closed societies
Incorrect, as the first crab tries to get up, the second one will pull it down, trying to get up itself. Hence the song by K-OS “Crabbuckit”.