Re: the labor of the bees?

[cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Carrol Cox)]

"We pre-suppose labour in a form that stamps it as exclusively human. A spider
conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame
many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes
the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises
his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality. At the end of
every labour-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination
of the labourer in its commencement. He not only effects a change of form in
the material on which he works, but he also realises a purpose of his own that
gives the law to his modus operandi, and to which he must subordinate his
will. And this subordination is no mere momentary act. . . ."
    Karl Marx
    Capital, Vol 1
    Chapter 7, "The Labour-Process and the Process of producing surplus-
value." Paragraph 2. (pg. 173 of Progress editio).

    Carrol


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