The Nigerian Mvies

The Nigerian Mvies
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Saturday 22 September 2012

The Meaning Of Being In The Herd

By Patrice McCoy


The meaning of being in the herd can be quite diffuse. It could refer to a radio program broadcast in the USA and presented by a man called Colin Cowherd. In this case the pun on the words 'herd' and the homophone 'heard' adds extra meaning through wit. However, many scientists toil ceaselessly to understand the behavior of creatures that are born in crowds or tight knit social groups that define who they are.

The phrase could therefore be a pun, with a play on the word 'heard' and the name of the radio show presenter. This radio show is apparently branching out into podcast s that can heard over the Internet. Presumably this would convert many smart phones into what used to be called portable radios. In the distant days of the twentieth century portable radios were an exciting innovation that allowed people to take sports broadcast with them on fishing expeditions or out into a workshop.

Now once shining and new portable radios are gathering dust in garden sheds or attics. In the 1980s the word podcast was unknown. In 2012 the word is quite widely understood to mean oral messages sent out over the Internet. This could be a way for radio presenters to survive by extending their reach through smart phones and similar new applications.

Though iPads and similar gadgets do enable people to take Internet and TV services with them wherever they go, there are times when the hands and eyes are otherwise occupied and it is convenient to have oral messages in the background. For example, sports followers hiking in remote African locations often like to follow the progress of cricket matches between Australia and England at Lords. The capacity to do this is now real.

In ancient times professional hunters probably had excellent understanding of herd behavior although they may not have stored their knowledge in writing. Their priorities were also very different, with the intent to kill being high on the list. In the twenty-first century the most important intention would more probably be to conserve the last few pockets of wild animals still existing.

The extremely different intentions would both be well served by a more detailed knowledge of behavioral traits. It is now well known that elephants can communicate over very wide distances by means of particular sounds that symbolize notions and stimulate particular responses. Though intercontinental communication may be unknown to elephant communities that is apparently not the case with whales which are thought to have a system not entirely dissimilar to the Internet. Perhaps it may be more like radio communication since no writing is involved.

Human beings may now have communication systems that are more effective than those of most birds and animals. However it is worth considering that the absence of such instinctive capabilities could have resulted in humanity rising to have dominion over all other life forms. Lacking instinctive social communication capabilities we might have had to invent what we did not inherit.

The instinct to live in groups seems common to species that do survive better than solitary creatures like endangered tigers and polar bears. Some human beings are instinctively loners, especially if they have known solitude during their formative years. Though such solitary people usually are happy with their own company and enjoy being habitually alone there remains a deep instinct in most of them to be, at least for a limited time, in the herd.




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