Par t 2 nature’s Military s trategies
collective temperature to 117 degrees Fahrenheit. Japanese honeybees can tolerate a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.7 degrees Celsius). Their victim’s upper limit is 115 (46.1 degrees Celsius). The hornet scout is slowly roasted alive. And the secret of the honeybee location dies with her. *4
There are small casualties of soldier bees. But they have saved their home.
Each subsequent hornet scout is destroyed in the same manner. The invading army of thirty hornet scouts is completely annihilated this way. The Japanese honeybee had treated each mandarinia hornet scout as a frontal assault army that must be readily destroyed.
It is generally accepted that the European honeybee does not have any counterforce capability against the giant mandarinia hornet, whereas the Japanese honeybee is not quite as defenseless as its European cous- ins. As a consequence of the European honeybee’s impatience for brav- ery, it invariably draws in the danger sooner and ends up destroyed. In contrast, the Japanese honeybee confidently and quietly goes about catching the representatives of the invader. Eventually, through careful planning and focused action, the motherland beehive is saved.
How do you deal with Crisis?
Do you think that there aren’t any opportunities for you to do some- thing meaningful, so you trudge around and make sure that this be- lief comes true?
Do you get all excited and start to act randomly, enthusiastically, and fight courageously, but without a plan or strategy to guide you until you end up exhausted and disillusioned?
Or do you focus your energies, create a plan for your life, and target one or two things that you can do really well, ensuring that you make a difference and do something meaningful?
Life Lessons f r om nature
Footnotes
*3 & *4
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Chapter 2 The Rise of Germany and the Schlieffen Plan
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1870 Germany
Out of these ashes of the Napoleonic Wars, the new united Germany would rise to dominate the Western World. This Germany used a series of provocations and wars to achieve her aim.
The man who did the most to unite the German states was Otto von Bismarck. He was the Prussian chancellor and his main goal was to strengthen even further the position of Prussia in Europe. Bismarck wanted to build up Prussia’s army in case his unification plans led to war. He carefully calculated and fermented the Franco-Prussian War with France, the preeminent power in Europe, to foster German na- tionalism and the subsequent rise in the standing of Germany. The new
Life Lessons f r om nature
tradition of German ascendancy was plotted by many successors of
Bismarck, reaching its climax with Alfred von Schlieffen.
The Schlieffen Plan—the Most Brilliant
Military Plan in the History of Mankind
Before WWI, the German military began to fear the possibility of a combined attack from France, Britain, and Russia. Alfred von Schlieffen, German Army Chief of Staff, was given instructions to de- vise a strategy that would be able to counter a joint attack.
The plan had the following key points:
• It was the culmination of the genius of all German military thinking.
• Never had so much faith by so many been put into one single plan.
• It provided Germany with an infallible plan had Schlieffen’s succes- sor, Helmuth von Moltke, understood the concept and executed it with precision.
• Germany would have practically been assured of victory in August
1914.
• And as a result, most of the world would be speaking and writing in German had the plan succeeded.
The Schlieffen Plan bears a close resemblance to the strategy of the Japanese honeybee in entrapping the vital main thrust of the first fron- tal wave of attack from the opposing hornet army.
Schlieffen knew that there was no way for Germany to fight on two fronts, and his plan involved using 90% of Germany’s armed forces to attack France. Fearing the French forts on the border with Germany, Schlieffen suggested a scythe-like attack through Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Schlieffen knew that the French could not resist in- vading Germany if war really broke out. He wanted a much smaller force defending the Alsace Lorraine in the south. This smaller force was ordered not to resist the French if they attacked but rather to fall back and lure the French army further and further into Germany. This is a huge revolving trap for the main thrust of the French forces.
Par t 2 nature’s Military s trategies
This closely resembles the trap that the Japanese honeybees set up for the mandarinia hornet. The French plan turned out to be exactly what Schlieffen had hoped for. The French sent out the bulk of their troops to attack Alsace Lorraine. This frontal assault would be just like the waves of attacks of the hornet scouts. They are best trapped inside bee- hives. The best strategy for the German defense was to trap the French troops inside German borders to prevent troops rushing to the rescue of Paris.
However, the German leadership for Alsace Lorraine modified their strategy and now they were eager to fight the French in French ter- ritory. Now their strategy resembled that of the European honeybee. They tried to fight bravely but to no avail. The French had retreat- ed to their forts at the Franco-German border. Thousands of French soldiers that the Schlieffen had hoped to trap inside Germany were now safely on French soil. The advancing German armies from Alsace Lorraine were decimated when they advanced into French soil beyond Alsace Loraine. This bears a striking resemblance to the foolhardiness of the European honeybee versus the mandarinia hornet. They should have stayed inside their hive of Germany and entrapped the attacking French troops.
The Schlieffen Plan in WWI had failed because the military leadership switched their strategy from that of the Japanese honeybee to that of the European honeybee.
“Case Yellow”
In WWII, “Case Yellow” was the code name given to the initial German push through the Ardennes Forest and into France. Its design was tai- lored to bypass the strong French frontier defenses of the Maginot Line. The advance would then threaten to encircle French and British divisions to the north, stationed on the Belgian frontier. This German campaign had actually caused the fall of France in 43 days.
Life Lessons f r om nature
“Case Yellow” proved that it was possible for France to fall in 6 weeks as stipulated in the Schlieffen Plan. Had they carried out the Schlieffen Plan meticulously in WWI, the Germans, after defeating the French in the west, would have now gathered all their troops to the east to face off the Russians, which took about six weeks to mobilize in.
Had they done this, the whole pivot of history would have shifted in favor of the Germans. Now their quick victory was assured and the Americans and the British were left to deal with the German fait accompli.
Chapter 3 Killer Whale, Killing Move / Orca Crosses a Dangerous Natural Barrier to Hunt Seals
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Incredibly, the ultimate marine predator has learned to prey on land. The orca should never be too near to the shallow waters of coastal ar- eas. It can get stranded easily or die of dehydration or suffocate under its own weight when the tide goes out. Very few animals are known to take a risk like this. But she has learned from experience that the pay off can be worth it. She knows there is a fine line between far enough and not getting stuck. Seals are the prey. In the water, the seals are diffi- cult to catch. On land where they breed, they are out of reach and safe.
The pool where the seals were was almost entirely cut off from the sea. They were protected by offshore reefs as well. The only access was through a narrow shallow channel, only deep enough for whales at high tide. Some whales had known about this secret and learned about how to exploit it. Seen from aerial reconnaissance cameras, the channel was a clear way from the sea to the se
als. The seals rested in peace as- sured of their safety through the natural barriers of water and land pro- tection. Complacency and confidence were with all the seals enjoying
Life Lessons f r om nature
this good afternoon of bliss and serenity. In addition to the natural barrier’s protection, they also kept to the shallows, just out of reach of any marine dangers.
Exactly two hours before high tide, the orca took up position outside the reef. When the time came, the orca avoided using sonar to lock onto prey and switched to silent mode to avoid the good hearing of the seals. The orca positioned herself near the mouth of the pool where the water was slightly deeper. She continuously investigated the depth of the water, the progress of the tide. Then one pup made a serious mistake. It strayed out of the shallows and into the pool. The orca took its chance. This was her moment. Edging further into the treacherous waters where it could be stranded at any instant, it launched its attack. With a struggling seal in her mouth, it took all her strength for her to pull her prey out of the pool and back to the ocean where it came from. She made her kill.
Chapter 4 Napoleon, Charlemagne, and Hannibal’s Strategies
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Life Lessons f r om nature
In his second Italian Campaign, Napoleon’s strategy was brilliantly imaginative. He led the Reserve Army of some 50,000 men over the Swiss Alps into Northern Italy, where they would emerge unexpectedly behind Austrian lines.
In a shrewd act of propaganda, Napoleon personally led the French forces through the Swiss Alps, echoing the legendary exploits of Charlemagne and Hannibal. Hannibal, one of the greatest military strategists of antiquity, was famed for his epic feat of marching the Carthaginian army, including thirty-seven war elephants, through the Alpine passes in 218 BCE. But of even greater significance to Napoleon was the invasion of Northern Italy via the Alps by Charlemagne, King of the Franks, in 773 CE.
Napoleon managed to complete the crossing and to skirt the Austrian fort at Bard in fifteen days, emerging on the plains of Lombardy on 30
May 1800, ready to meet the Austrian army, which he defeated at the
Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800.
Napoleon, Charlemagne, and Hannibal were doing what the orca had devised to do. There are grave dangers and uncertainties in imple- menting a strategy. However, when carefully executed, the rewards are phenomenal.
The orca has shown us that instinct, insight, and implementation will bring us great rewards of success in business and government.
Part 3 Nature’s Political Intrigues
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The only reality guiding politicians is the current situation and the goals of the moment, which can change as frequently as the weather.
When people find themselves in positions of power, they stop trying to regulate their behavior. What you’re seeing really is a truer expression of the person in power.
We find also that when people are in positions of power, they stop taking others’ perspectives. Power just makes people very fixated in a single-minded way on the pursuit of their own goals. There’s a disin- clination to think about how they’re being perceived by other people.
As for the ordinary folks, we do what we do for a multitude of mo- tives—some noble, some selfish, some cynical. We will never deny that a politician has a political motive, but that observation is so obvious that we can safely presume it.
Let’s take a look at nature: the politician you never knew.
Chapter 1 Young Virgin Queen Bees Seek Out Virgin Queen Bee Rivals to Kill Them
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The bee colony normally has a single reproductive female—the queen. She is specialized for the functions of egg laying and chemical pro- duction, especially of the “queen substance” pheromone. She does not work like the workers and, in fact, cannot survive without workers to care for her. Minimum colony size is one queen and 200 workers.
During resting, a retinue of twelve or more worker bees attends to the queen. They feed her, groom her, remove her wastes, and also receive her “queen substance” and other pheromones. The pheromones are shared with other workers in food transmission behavior.
Since there is only a single female reproductive in a bee colony, there is a special procedure to replace her when it becomes necessary to do so.
Life Lessons f r om nature
Replacement of a queen by another queen is a process termed superse- dure. Replacement of the queen and production of another colony is another behavior called swarming. A third means of replacing a queen, emergency queen rearing, is necessary if the queen dies suddenly, is re- moved by a beekeeper, or is somehow injured or lost from her colony.
A virgin queen is a queen bee that has not mated with a drone, and the size is between workers and mated, laying queens. When she emerges, her first priority is to seek out virgin queen rivals and attempt to kill them by stinging any other emerged virgin queen. The queen bee is the only bee in the hive that does not have a barbed stinger. This means she can repeatedly sting like a wasp.
For those unemerged queens, she will slash open their shells with her stinger and kill them. Those queen cells that are opened on the side in- dicate that a virgin queen was likely killed by a rival virgin queen. After destroying the other potential queen bees, the new queen bee seeks to eliminate the old queen. Usually, the old queen will have left the hive before the new queen is born. However, if the old and new queens meet, there will be a fight to the death. Should the current queen be able to win in battle against the new queen, she will continue to lay eggs and will remain queen of the hive.
Chapter 2 Contenders for Political and Leadership Positions
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Primary Presidential Elections
Democratic and Republican party presidential primaries closely re- semble the virgin queen bee. Each candidate tries to win his/her nomi- nation through the political process of campaigning. Eventually, each party chooses only one presidential candidate; the rest of the contend- ers have been stung. Then the only representative of the opposing party, like the new challenger virgin queen bee, battles against the incumbent president, the old queen bee, from the ruling party. The bipartisan pri- maries in the United States are also similar to the processes involved in other countries for the nomination of political leadership positions.
Leadership Positions in Large Companies
Here again we witness the same scenario when leadership positions are contested. To climb the corporate ladder implies a same process of elimination of competitors. This is especially true of executives of men
Life Lessons f r om nature
and women who have worked their way up the corporate system in that specific company.
On the Individual Level
There’s a battle between two virgin queens inside us all. One represents anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, dishonesty, and selfish- ness. The other one represents joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kind- ness, compassion, and truth.
The one that wins is the one you feed with better-grade Royal Jelly. This internal battle is one that we all face, and it’s important that we
take responsibility for feeding the right one. For it will come to domi-
nate our life, lead us to success, recognition, and progress.
How are you helping the nobler aspects of your inner self to win?
Chapter 3 The Notorious Cuckoo and the Parasitic Wasps
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The cuckoo is a bird that never builds a nest. It’s a cheat, thief, and a killer It will steal and eat other birds’ eggs so that other species will be cheated into accepting its eggs as one of their own, due to the similarities in size and color of the eggs. The newborn baby cuckoo’s first instinct is to kill anything else—newly hatched birds or eggs in its host’s nest—to make room for its sole development. Finally and perhaps most remarkably of all, the monstrous cuckoo chick man- ages to fool two tiny foster parents into feeding and caring for it for weeks.
The reed warbl
er is one of the species of birds that are parasitized by the cuckoo. It works hard to create a complex nest set within the reeds of its habitat and proceeds to lay its eggs, only for the parasitic and nefarious cuckoo to come along and lay a similar egg in the nest when it is not around.
Life Lessons f r om nature
The poor, oblivious Mum and Dad couple reed warblers respond to the cuckoo chick’s squawks and start to feed it, unaware that their true offspring has been disposed of.
It keeps squawking and the warblers keep feeding him. Soon, he’s bigger than his adopted parents.
But they keep feeding him until he’s big enough to fly away and live independently, leaving the poor warblers to look at each other and wonder what happened.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Have your dreams of raising a family and creating a legacy ended up in fostering a cuckoo?
The story of the parasitic wasp closely resembles the notorious cuckoo. The parasitic wasp female lays her eggs inside the caterpillar host by her
sting. The eggs hatch into larvae inside the body of the caterpillar. The