In the animal kingdom, a critter has to have ways to deceive those nasty predators that are out to eat him! So in order to blend in, escape, or hide from certain danger there have to be ways to deceive that which is bigger and more threatening than the self. For instance, there is certain butterfly that looks a lot like the Monarch. She is called the Viceroy. Unfortunately for Miss Viceroy, she is not poisonous to eat. She is a tasty treat of a Lepidoptera! So, over time the mode of deception for Miss V has been able to mimic the colors and patterning of her rotten tasting sister butterfly, the Monarch. To the untrained eye, they look the same; and yet upon further inspection Miss V has an extra black stripe on her hind wing and some white dots as well. To the predator, all they see is "Stay away! Bad tasting! Do not eat!" See what I mean? Deception!
Other insects are great at this as well, take for example the stick bug. Looks just like a twig! He is able to hide from predators by blending in to the environment. Leaf bugs do it too! chameleons do it by changing colors. You get the idea. And it's all about survival!
So how do humans do it? Well humans are masters of deception! But on the not-so-evil side of things, I am talking about emotional protection rather than utter diabolical destruction of another. We hedge our words, we withhold information, we might tell a little white lie occasionally, we look away so others can't read our faces (so we think), we remain silent so as not to give too much away. . . you get the drift.
This is not necessarily an evil thing we are doing. It serves a purpose, at least emotionally. We do it so subconsciously sometimes that it goes beyond notice. It's a survival technique. Think about it. . . any reflections??
(Image from simplybutterflies.com)
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