…There are many lessons in Nature, with her apparent tranquility and charm: but underlying this facade is a blood-bath of dog eat dog imperative for survival, and a rise of the "Individual" dominates social norms and necessities of the collective. A pyramid of predators crowned by the greatest threat to survival of the planet; the individual “Man” and his obsession with himself and his own ends!

Ian, what you don’t see when you are looking at your beloved spider is that it has built a sinister trap for insects, and that many innocent insects will die in it.

You won’t see that the male spiders have to risk their lives in order to mate with the much larger female, and that many of them do indeed die at the hands (hairy legs and fangs) of their mate, either before or after mating.

You won’t see that hundreds if not thousands of spiderlings will hatch after a mating, but that on average far less than one will survive to maturity. Indeed, only one female (and perhaps ten males!) needs to survive out of all the progeny of your spider throughout its life in order to maintain a stable population, and if even 1.1 survived on average, you would pretty soon have a population explosion of that species of spider.

You won’t see the wasps that catch spiders, paralyse them and entomb them in mud capsules as live food for their developing young.

You won’t see the falling leaves and strong winds and large insects that are of no use to your spider, all of which frequently damage if not destroy its web and necessitate rebuilding.

You won’t see the vicious competition between individuals if there happen to be a lot of them around with insufficient sites for nest building.

You won’t see what happens to them if they fail to catch enough food to cover their energy output with the constant repair and rebuilding of their webs.

You won’t see small birds pluck a sitting duck spider out of the centre of its nest and take it out of existence within the space of one second.

Nature is vicious.

We aren’t separate from it or different to it. As our society degrades and our population burgeons, we will not move further away from your idyllic view of nature… we will move closer to the real blood-bath dog-eat-dog nature of nature.

ian..nature is all about doG EATING DOg too
in case you missed it..survival of the fittest..seems a natural law[even if deludeD SCIENCE Types think it a science/proof.

so much more we could explain..re the spider[and its 8 spinnerets THAT DETERMINE THE QUALITY OF ITS SILKS]..BUT LETS GET BEHIND THE IMAGERY

man is king of the beasts/WE ARE HERE because ape raped a pig
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=16038&page=0

WHY WE ARE HERE..is to judge..the fallen angels
sort the living from the dead/the gooD FROM THE CCC-RAP
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6262&page=0

ANYHOw..as posters have revealed..its not all nice/not all pretty
so i will try to expand/upon..why it is so.[see since the first living..there has been a energy souRCE/PLENTY..THAT CHANGES ENERGY/STATE..

much like VIA OZMosis..as spider eats spider
and life returns to the dirt/DUSTS FROM WHICH IT EMERGED.

please note how you had 'created'..a great but delusional imagining/upon the spider's web..but THEN OVERLAYED OVER EVEN THE ILLUSION..EVEN MORE VILE CRAP..we seem to do constantly to other..as we try to make sense of it all.

life is what we chose to make it
IM UNSURE WHERE TO TAKE MY REply..to resolve the crap..or expose the eternal beauty of energy changing state..that sees the dust of past creation..YET BECOME THE CLAY FOR ALL FUTURE LIVING

NEVER FORGET WE ARE ETERNAL SPIRITS/UNDERGOING A CRAPPY OR HAPPY BEING
GETTING BACK 7 FOLD..THAT WE Put in..yet it all comes out crap[thats why we love starting things..but then cut and run/leaving the learning undONE.

Diver Dan, your comment is right on the money. Humans are nature's most despicable creature. A nuclear war is needed to get rid of them, every single one!

I read yesterday on ICH about soldiers in a war tearing the children of their enemies apart while they screamed. Smaller children had their heads dashed against steel stanchions.

Humans! Noble and intelligent? No way!

Nature is of course a realm in which everything including human beings gets eaten by someting else sooner or later. Nevertheless we have no choice but to live in this realm with real feeling-intelligence.
This essay provides a unique Understanding of what is going on prior to all of the carnage - the universal BUZZ
http://sacredcamelgardens.com/wordpress/wisdom/contemplative-state-exaltation

“I gave thanks for my good fortune in knowing on which side of the tree I prefer to sit.”

I wonder does the spider have arrogance? I wonder does the spider need to describe all the world’s atrocities and distance themselves from them as if such behaviour could never come from them. Such arrogance only comes from ignorance about one’s own human nature. You may have never indulged in a violent act in your life it does not follow that you have done no harm. There are many ways to do harm – such harm that can have worse effects than violence. Have you never bullied anyone, treated anyone unjustly, manipulated relationships to protect your own interests, never been dishonest, never lied to the detriment of other people?

There are thousands of homes in Australian suburbia where ‘ordinary’ people emotionally abuse their children every day. Such constant abuse can have such a devastating effect that it cripples those people for the rest of their lives just as assuredly as does the violence to children in Syria or the separation of children in detention camps.

A ‘holier than thou’ attitude already makes you part of the problem. Unless you can see the aggression and injustice in your own life you will go on being part of the problem every day at home, at work, in society. If you want the world to be more like nature then you need to understand your own human nature and how to eliminate all the unnatural things you do such as placing yourself above others.

You are not arrogant? Then what is the point of your article?