There’s a Chinese proverb folks seem to have forgotten:
“What is good for the hive is good for the bee.”
Yet a lot of Americans today seem to be focused on the the bees…
“What’s best for me? I don’t care how it affects anyone else.”
“How can I maximize my short-term pleasure?” (Implied in this is, “And increase my long-term pain?”)
“This new policy is good for me, so what else matters?”
If the bees acted that way, the hive would die. And we’d have no honey.
But we’d also have no crops. People would starve. We’d lose access to essential medications—even fibers for clothing.
Maximizing individual short-term interests rarely leads to anything good for most people.
It’s because we live in a world of systems. And systems are greater than the sum of their individual parts. They also have 2nd-, 3rd-, and even 4th-order effects.
Ask yourself, the next time you’re voting, writing a new policy, or drafting a law:
“Is this good for the hive?”
Nathan's Blog 
Dear Nathan,
I really like the quotation “What is good for the hive is good for the bee.” It can also appear in the form “That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.”
Sometimes, it can be very difficult to ascertain the true source of this quotation, which has also been attributed to Roman emperor and ancient stoic master Marcus Aurelius. The problem of misattribution and many other issues afflicting quotations have become quite grave, as discussed in my post entitled “The Quotation Fallacy“, which you can easily locate from the Home page of my blog.
I concur with you about the short-sightedness that is so commonly encountered as you have described. It stems from some core traits in the human species, which are identified and analyzed in my post entitled We have Paleolithic Emotions; Medieval Institutions; and God-like Technology“, published at
This is a very substantial and topically important post, even dealing with the fundamental problems and the existential crisis of the human species, looming ever larger.
Wishing you a productive week doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most, including but not limited to composing highly commendable blog posts!
Happy October to you!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
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