What could be more appropriate for a Valentine tale than the rabbit, uh, er, bunny? No not some story about a revitalized Hugh Hefner bar scene with employees serving drinks while wearing silk ears and a skimpy outfit, but rather the story of Oryctolagus cuniculus, the European rabbit and prolific procreator. Ah! Love bunny!
Apparently, the species has a tendency to overrun entire countries, such as Australia and France. After their introduction to Australia by the “First Fleet” which carried prisoners and the rabbits to breed for prison food, a few European rabbits released into the wild eventually turned themselves into a horde of crop-devouring little monsters in need of extermination. Enter myxoma, the virus called on to do the culling. Myxoma virus of the genus Leporipoxvirus bypasses the immune system of certain rabbit species and causes myxomatosis and death within about two weeks. Ah! Poor little bunnies.
But wait! Super Bunny to the rescue. At least, an immune bunny to the rescue. Farmers beware! In an example of parallel evolution, some rabbits in unconnected locations have evolved immunities to protect themselves from myxoma. * The bunnies are once again on the rise. The mechanism of protective adaptation is a story for those interested in evolutionary processes, but the parallel evolution might interest a wider audience.
Karl Marx is like the guys who introduced rabbits to the landscapes of Australia to satisfy their hunting desires. An earlier release by Alexander Buchanan in 1857 was followed by a later release of rabbits into the wild by Thomas Austin. Austin said at the time that a few rabbits would do little harm. Let’s hazard a guess here about Marx: He probably wasn’t motivated by a desire to destroy crops and the lives of millions of humans. He could not have foreseen the degradation of lives wrought by the dictators who corrupted his ideal plan.
First, take a look at some of Marx’s requirements, the “rabbits” he introduced into countries as invasive species:
6, Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of wastelands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Etc. **
See anything similar being advocated today?
Second, the facts of food production in the Soviet Union are glaring examples of the failure of centralization under the auspices of the state. Soviet agricultural collectives and communes offered few or no incentives for individuals to elevate their “common” state of life, the somewhat drab living in state-designed bland and cramped housing, and under the requirement to labor with little going to their own support. (However, farmers on collective farms were permitted to have one or two cows and to sell milk on the side) There was no private ownership of land. The result? Food shortages. Farmers in the Soviet Union produced far less than their American counterparts, and the Soviet Union had to import grains. In 1932 and 1933 the decrease in food production caused by collectivization caused widespread famine under Stalin’s reign, possibly causing more than 14 million deaths in those two years alone, and millions more between 1929 and the late 1930s.
So, there it is, the introduction of a political/philosophical invasive rabbit into countries with devastating effects. There’s an analogy here somewhere. Oh! Yes. The rabbits of Communism and Socialism overran numerous countries, destroying the farms and disrupting and even destroying lives. Some efforts were made to eliminate those rabbits, but wouldn’t you know it, they seem to have adapted to the political scene of the twenty-first century. They’ve made a comeback and are now apparently the cute little bunnies in the imaginations of many young people uninformed about the lives lost and disrupted under Communism. The rabbits are starting to multiply again, apparently having developed an immunity against the economic-political-and-even-military efforts of generations of twentieth-century peoples who attempted to rid themselves of the hardships and evils that today’s version of Marxists would reintroduce. Can anyone say "Venezuela"?
We’re going to need a more virulent myxoma.
*Pennisi, Elizabeth. Seventy yars ago, humans unleashed a killer virus on rabbits. Here’s how they beat it. Science. February 14, 2019. Online at https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/seventy-years-ago-humans-unleashed-killer-virus-rabbits-heres-how-they-beat-it Accessed on February 15, 2019.
**Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Second Ed., Ed. by David McLellan. Oxford. Oxford University Press, The Communist Manifesto, Chapter II "Proletarians and Communists," full list on pages 261, 262.
Apparently, the species has a tendency to overrun entire countries, such as Australia and France. After their introduction to Australia by the “First Fleet” which carried prisoners and the rabbits to breed for prison food, a few European rabbits released into the wild eventually turned themselves into a horde of crop-devouring little monsters in need of extermination. Enter myxoma, the virus called on to do the culling. Myxoma virus of the genus Leporipoxvirus bypasses the immune system of certain rabbit species and causes myxomatosis and death within about two weeks. Ah! Poor little bunnies.
But wait! Super Bunny to the rescue. At least, an immune bunny to the rescue. Farmers beware! In an example of parallel evolution, some rabbits in unconnected locations have evolved immunities to protect themselves from myxoma. * The bunnies are once again on the rise. The mechanism of protective adaptation is a story for those interested in evolutionary processes, but the parallel evolution might interest a wider audience.
Karl Marx is like the guys who introduced rabbits to the landscapes of Australia to satisfy their hunting desires. An earlier release by Alexander Buchanan in 1857 was followed by a later release of rabbits into the wild by Thomas Austin. Austin said at the time that a few rabbits would do little harm. Let’s hazard a guess here about Marx: He probably wasn’t motivated by a desire to destroy crops and the lives of millions of humans. He could not have foreseen the degradation of lives wrought by the dictators who corrupted his ideal plan.
First, take a look at some of Marx’s requirements, the “rabbits” he introduced into countries as invasive species:
- Abolition of property in land…
- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
6, Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of wastelands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Etc. **
See anything similar being advocated today?
Second, the facts of food production in the Soviet Union are glaring examples of the failure of centralization under the auspices of the state. Soviet agricultural collectives and communes offered few or no incentives for individuals to elevate their “common” state of life, the somewhat drab living in state-designed bland and cramped housing, and under the requirement to labor with little going to their own support. (However, farmers on collective farms were permitted to have one or two cows and to sell milk on the side) There was no private ownership of land. The result? Food shortages. Farmers in the Soviet Union produced far less than their American counterparts, and the Soviet Union had to import grains. In 1932 and 1933 the decrease in food production caused by collectivization caused widespread famine under Stalin’s reign, possibly causing more than 14 million deaths in those two years alone, and millions more between 1929 and the late 1930s.
So, there it is, the introduction of a political/philosophical invasive rabbit into countries with devastating effects. There’s an analogy here somewhere. Oh! Yes. The rabbits of Communism and Socialism overran numerous countries, destroying the farms and disrupting and even destroying lives. Some efforts were made to eliminate those rabbits, but wouldn’t you know it, they seem to have adapted to the political scene of the twenty-first century. They’ve made a comeback and are now apparently the cute little bunnies in the imaginations of many young people uninformed about the lives lost and disrupted under Communism. The rabbits are starting to multiply again, apparently having developed an immunity against the economic-political-and-even-military efforts of generations of twentieth-century peoples who attempted to rid themselves of the hardships and evils that today’s version of Marxists would reintroduce. Can anyone say "Venezuela"?
We’re going to need a more virulent myxoma.
*Pennisi, Elizabeth. Seventy yars ago, humans unleashed a killer virus on rabbits. Here’s how they beat it. Science. February 14, 2019. Online at https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/seventy-years-ago-humans-unleashed-killer-virus-rabbits-heres-how-they-beat-it Accessed on February 15, 2019.
**Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Second Ed., Ed. by David McLellan. Oxford. Oxford University Press, The Communist Manifesto, Chapter II "Proletarians and Communists," full list on pages 261, 262.
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