The queen bees and worker bees
In 1894 in these United States Labor Day was designated as a federal holiday to pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of the American worker. Clearly in the minds of the creator of this tribute there was an implied distinction between the worker bees and the queen bees – those paragons of the industrial revolution who became rich by doing all they could to create jobs which would ensure a hefty return on their investments. Sometimes the money for the investment came from the initial toil of a worker bee who then morphed into the queen bee. There are many historical examples of such worker bees becoming queen bees. All too often it seems as if the transition from worker bee to queen bee requires a dissociation from one’s origin and, thus, allows for the mistreatment of the worker bees. Eventually the worker bees create their own hierarchy and the original goal of providing a living wage and a safe working environment is supplanted by the demons of power and individual wealth. The labor movement takes a group of individuals – I’s – and create a ‘we.’ The ‘we’ elects representatives who again become individuals whose primary interest now seems to be their own power and wealth – queen bees.
When thinking about Labor Day in these United States I could not stop thinking of the incantation of the witch in Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
“Double, double toil and trouble:
Fire burn and caldron bubble.”
I grew up in a family of worker bees. Once we left the “modern conveniences” of electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing of our home in Chicago we took up survival living in rural Oklahoma. We did not think of ourselves as laborers. We thought of staying warm, eating, bathing and having a safe outdoor toilet. Our father worked a variety of worker bee jobs while mother pushed us to share in doing all the necessary survival tasks. Although she hated our poverty and, in her mind, our lowly status in the hierarchy of even that rural community, this introduction to the distinction between the worker bees and the queen bees served my siblings and I well. Though some of us might graduate in the eyes of the larger community to the status of junior queen bees it was obvious to us that we best not forget that we could be at the mercy of a queen bee at any given moment. In many respects we retain the mindset of the worker bees.
I suppose that there have always been worker bees and the queen bees who would morph into the witches who would fill the cauldron with all manner of snakes and newts and frogs creating the “charm which is firm and good.” Yet, I wonder if another brew is possible which would restore the ‘we’ to labor.
This Labor Day weekend the worker bees will gather to eat, drink and be merry while the queen bees will do whatever it is that queen bees do. Yet, I wonder. If the queen bee is stirring the cauldron are they a worker bee or a queen bee. Hummmm. ‘Tis a puzzle.
Written September 2, 2017
532 words
In 1894 in these United States Labor Day was designated as a federal holiday to pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of the American worker. Clearly in the minds of the creator of this tribute there was an implied distinction between the worker bees and the queen bees – those paragons of the industrial revolution who became rich by doing all they could to create jobs which would ensure a hefty return on their investments. Sometimes the money for the investment came from the initial toil of a worker bee who then morphed into the queen bee. There are many historical examples of such worker bees becoming queen bees. All too often it seems as if the transition from worker bee to queen bee requires a dissociation from one’s origin and, thus, allows for the mistreatment of the worker bees. Eventually the worker bees create their own hierarchy and the original goal of providing a living wage and a safe working environment is supplanted by the demons of power and individual wealth. The labor movement takes a group of individuals – I’s – and create a ‘we.’ The ‘we’ elects representatives who again become individuals whose primary interest now seems to be their own power and wealth – queen bees.
When thinking about Labor Day in these United States I could not stop thinking of the incantation of the witch in Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
“Double, double toil and trouble:
Fire burn and caldron bubble.”
I grew up in a family of worker bees. Once we left the “modern conveniences” of electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing of our home in Chicago we took up survival living in rural Oklahoma. We did not think of ourselves as laborers. We thought of staying warm, eating, bathing and having a safe outdoor toilet. Our father worked a variety of worker bee jobs while mother pushed us to share in doing all the necessary survival tasks. Although she hated our poverty and, in her mind, our lowly status in the hierarchy of even that rural community, this introduction to the distinction between the worker bees and the queen bees served my siblings and I well. Though some of us might graduate in the eyes of the larger community to the status of junior queen bees it was obvious to us that we best not forget that we could be at the mercy of a queen bee at any given moment. In many respects we retain the mindset of the worker bees.
I suppose that there have always been worker bees and the queen bees who would morph into the witches who would fill the cauldron with all manner of snakes and newts and frogs creating the “charm which is firm and good.” Yet, I wonder if another brew is possible which would restore the ‘we’ to labor.
This Labor Day weekend the worker bees will gather to eat, drink and be merry while the queen bees will do whatever it is that queen bees do. Yet, I wonder. If the queen bee is stirring the cauldron are they a worker bee or a queen bee. Hummmm. ‘Tis a puzzle.
Written September 2, 2017
532 words
RSS Feed