Political Bugs

The Case For Political Neutrality

Dust To Dust | 4th July 2024

Is silence violence? Intervening in a controversy one knows little about can increase suffering. For example: it seems intuitive to support a ban on the rhino horn trade in South Africa. Yet, such a ban caused horn prices to soar, resulting in increased poaching of rhinos. Political neutrality does not mean withdrawing from politics; it involves cultivating informed opinions before taking action (1,700 words)

A Bug’s Life

Natalie Lawrence | Public Domain Review | 9th July 2024

On Book of Monsters, a 1914 collection of macrophotographs of insects. Its authors, David and Marian Fairchild, created cameras with extension tubes up to twenty feet long to magnify the images, transforming “jumping spiders, weevils, dragonfly nymphs, and other arthropods” into fantastical beasts. The text imagined insects’ perspectives — “a spider from the fly’s point of view is a terrible monster” (1,400 words)