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genre:

It was just one ant!

A Bug’s Life (1998)

and I want to note that the takeaway here is not just “if we organize and work together we can accomplish a lot!” although that’s true. but like.

“it’s not about food. it’s about keeping those ants in line.”

the way they treat the ants, the things they demand, aren’t just based on the straightforward question of “how much food do we need?”

instead, their primary goal has to be keeping the ants afraid. they can’t make concessions, even if they don’t actually need the stuff, because if the ants realize they have any chance of resisting, the grasshoppers’ whole system collapses.

I feel like there are a lot of things like that in the world right now. things that people in power make a huge fuss about, that may or may not be important in themselves, but their deeper effect is that they keep people afraid and on the defensive instead of organizing and fighting back.