TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Amazing Spiders, Captured Women, & Becoming a More Manly Man
Date: 08/23/24 Length: 28:05
Daniel Lapin 0:00
Greetings, Happy Warriors, and welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show, where I your rabbi, reveal how the world really works. Thank you for being part of the show, and thank you, as always, for subscribing. Yes, please do that. Thank you for spreading the word on the show and telling people who you think would appreciate it. All about it. So I really, really do appreciate that. And we move on to the the current article. I'm recording this in August 2024 the current issue of of biology, the current issue of the magazine Current Biology actually has an article that really grabbed me. And let me tell you about it. It's about spiders now there is a friend, or there was a French bureaucrat called Faber F-a-b-r-e who apparently didn't have a lot to do as a French bureaucrat, and so he wrote a book all about spiders as a result of having studied spiders year after year in his garden in France. And it's one of the most beautiful books on spiders, and is also amazingly accurate. I mean, it's been used asa fundamental source, a primary source, on spiders for for many, many years. This is the book. I think it's close to 100 years old, at any rate, spiders are interesting. And here is a story, and you'll see why I'm curious about it. So you know that on the internet, dating is very perilous, because for one thing, it's quite common for people to depict themselves in ways that are far from accurate, and so, you know, girls know that if, they are going to try and meet men on the internet, they're going to know that it's very common for guys to lie about their height, adding an inch or two or Three, and also to lie about their finances, their income, and men know that women are likely to lie about their weight. And so you know these things happen. Well, all men and women who do this on dating sites on the internet are mere amateurs when it comes to a kind of spider known as an orb weaving spider, aronius ventricosus.
Daniel Lapin 3:14
Current Biology is a little bit technical for me, and so I go cautiously and slowly, but at any rate, the spider weaves are an intricate, beautiful web, and it loves eating fireflies. Now, fireflies are very curious creatures for one thing. And you know, you may have them in your garden on a summer evening. I've not seen a lot of them on the West Coast, I got to tell you, I haven't seen a lot of fireflies, certainly not in California and in Washington, rarely. But on the East Coast, you see fireflies a whole lot, particularly in the mid Atlantic region. And these fireflies are number one. The curious thing they do is they synchronize, and so when a whole bunch of fireflies are on a bush after a little while, they all start flashing in synchronization, which is an extraordinary thing to see. And what's interesting about it is that you wonder, first of all, what possible purpose can that serve? And secondly, the mechanism, all of a sudden has to be rather complicated, because, you know, fine sending, you know, making your abdomen flash, that's one thing, but to be able to spot the flashes of neighboring fireflies, and then to you. Uh, regulate your own flesh as a firefly until they're all flashing at the same time. It's just so weird. And I have, from time to time, tried this in audiences, particularly when I'm talking about this topic, I ask people, I say, look, please start clapping your hands at the rate of about one beat a second, and then I show them what it sounds like, you know, maybe something like that. And just pay no attention to anyone else. Just go ahead, and when I give you the signal, I'd like everybody to start clapping their hands at a beat of about one time a second. And initially what you hear is just a cacophony of noise as hundreds of people are clapping on each their own schedule. And here's the fascinating thing, and it never fails, this works every time. You know, you can try it at a at a dinner table. You can try it at a get together. It works every single time after usually no more than 10 to 15 seconds. Everybody's clapping in unison. It's synchronized, and everybody has got into the same and all you hear is one big clap. As you know, however many people are they all clap at the same time. So you know, why does that happen? Is there a sort of subtle yearning to be part of the crowd, to be connected to other people. And so if you're going ahead and clapping entirely at your own tempo, then you're not connected, as it were. I don't know. This speculation with me, and fascinating. But it seems as if something is going on with fireflies that is just like that. Another thing about fireflies, before we come back to the orb spider. The other thing about fireflies is that they are similar to marine lighthouses in the following sense, that when you're sailing at night, you know, maybe up the west coast of California, Oregon, Washington, which is an area I have known, or if you're sailing in the English Channel, down the English Channel, your chart marks certain lighthouses. And you're traveling at night, you will see the beam of a lighthouse. Sometimes it can be from 15, 16, 17, miles away, easy. And the every Lighthouse has an identifiable light pattern. So for instance, it might be three flashes every 20 seconds that could be the pattern. So the lighthouse is dark, and then all of a sudden, Flash, Flash, Flash dock for 17 seconds or 18 seconds, and again, Flash, Flash, Flash. And sometimes the patterns are more complex, sometimes not. But the basically, the idea is that by spotting the flash and observing its characteristics, you can unmistakably identify the lighthouse, which means you know exactly where you are on on the chart, which means you know where you are on the ocean. Well, it turns out that fireflies also have flash patterns, but only two different types, male and female. And so male fireflies flash a certain recognizable pattern.
Daniel Lapin 8:45
Female fireflies flash a different pattern. So this I can understand, because in the world of fireflies, you don't get to state what your gender is. It just is. And so a male Firefly wants to locate a female Firefly, and he doesn't have an internet dating site, and so he has to use the flashes. And if male and female fireflies had exactly the same flash, then he'd be lucky, only one in two times 50% at the time, which is not an ideal reproductive strategy. So the good Lord set it up in a nice way, which means that female fireflies have a distinctive flesh, male have a distinctive flesh, and so a male can quickly identify whether the flesh is spotting is a female, in which case he's interested or a male, in which case, he isn't. And that's the pattern of fireflies. Well, back to the spider, the orb spider, quite extraordinary, and this whole thing of communication
Daniel Lapin 9:55
that the Firefly synchronize, and people synchronize. I thought I would do a little bonus for you, a discussion on how to communicate effectively. You know how your child comes home from school and eager to have quality time with your child, you say, you know. And so Jimmy, what happened at school today? And you know the answer? You get right? Nothing. And you even try and draw it out. Well, what you know, what's the best? You can't get anything out. Well, you can, if you have the tips and tools that I'm going to provide in the bonus. And the bonus is for the people we love, our Happy Warrior community, whom I always want to give the tools and the resources by means of which they can all improve their five F's. And one of the F's is family. Another of the F is friendship, and both family and friendship are enormously enhanced by effective communication. But wait, so is the F for finance, all business career, professional activity enormously enhanced by effective and connecting communication. So back to the orb spider, but just be aware that if you are lucky enough to be part of the Happy Warrior community, why? Waiting for you is a bonus, just for you on tips for effective communication, whether it's with friends or family or business associates, you will be able to get at any rate, the orb spider loves munching on fireflies. That's his best possible diet. So listen to this, the first five and all spiders, like all spiders, hunt in the nighttime. That's why early in the morning, you'll see spider webs that were built by spiders early in the night and used to catch prey during the night and then during the day. They usually get damaged, and the spider then weaves the web again the next evening, so the orb spider waits until he catches a firefly, and it's turns out to be a male Firefly. Well, he weaves the Firefly up, and there's a special name for that, and I don't know that, I remember what it was, but he weaves some some thread around the Firefly he's captured and and he does that. He the Firefly doesn't get killed. He doesn't kill it at all. He just immobilizes it. He wraps it up in in the silk thread. And then the funny thing is, the Firefly switches from a male sequence flash to a female sequence flash. And guess what that does? It starts attracting male fireflies, who all come and fly into the web, and the spider immobilizes them all until there are enough caught to provide him with a very wonderful dinner. And then the orb spider proceeds to eat all the fireflies. I'm not sure why he prefers eating male fireflies to female fireflies. But it's possible that male fireflies respond to female Firefly flashing pattern, and it may be that female fireflies do not maybe they are receivers, rather than then,seekers, as it were, and that would not be that different from the pattern with us human beings as well, right?
Daniel Lapin 14:07
In the sense that for the most part, and yes, I mean, I know that there are obviously exceptions, but for the most part, women wait to be proposed to, and men do the proposing. And I've spoken about this many times. I've discussed it, and so I won't go back into that now, but the pattern is that the orb spider has his first captured Firefly, which was male start signaling a female signal, and that attracts a whole bunch of more fireflies. Now, it's really weird. I mean, it's a hilarious deception being practiced by the spider, and it works, and I didn't know anything at all about it until I had a chance to take a look at the August issue of Current Biology and. And that's where I sort and I haven't finished it. There's a whole lot more information, but what I've told you is a reality. It's what happens, what is unclear. And I don't really care that much about this. They're not seeing whether this is caused. In other words, does the orb spider bite the Firefly and inject some substance that chemically influences the flashing rate of the Firefly and causes the Firefly to start emitting a female signal instead of the male signal? And they're not sure about that, but I wouldn't be surprised. And this is just me. I'm not a biologist, and I'm not authoritative on this, but I'm thinking aloud, because you might find it as interesting as I did, and that it is possible that by virtue of being captured, that male Firefly acquires the female characteristics. It's possible that the spider doesn't inject anything, doesn't bite him, and does nothing but wrap him up in silk. And it's possible that, by virtue of being captured and immobilized in a sense, that the Firefly absorbs or acquires feminine characteristics. Something that I do know is that there is something called Stockholm Syndrome, and this was first noticed in 1973 in a bank hostage situation where four people, three women and a man were were held hostage by the bank robbers. And it turns out that over a period of time, these people start relating in a very emotional and connected way to their capitals. And so instead of being increasingly resentful and increasingly angry, they become increasingly attached, until in extreme cases, people who were captured end up actually venting their anger on the law enforcement, on the folks who are trying to rescue them. And this is a real thing.
Daniel Lapin 17:35
It sounds bizarre and crazy, and I don't for a minute believe that it's happening in Gaza, with the Israeli hostages that are still held. And I can't imagine it, but I don't know. You know, who knows? But that it is a common phenomenon is definitely unarguable at this point. It's not classified in and, you know, I'm no big fan of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but in DSM five, it's actually I checked. It's not listed as a mental disorder, but it is discussed as an emotional condition, and there's quite a lot of literature on it, and I've read a fair amount of it, not a whole lot, but a fair amount. But here's the thing that I find most interesting. First of all, turns out women are far more susceptible to this. Okay, think about that for a second. And then when I tell you that men who have gone through a period of captivity find themselves diminished in a man sense, they are slightly and sometimes more than slightly, Demas emasculated. Their masculinity takes a dive, a testosterone level drops. And so there is a pattern here. What's going on is that being made impotent by being held by strong male captors has a slight feminizing effects, terrible thing on the male captives, and again, after a period of time in freedom, they return to normality, but it is a measurable, real phenomenon. And men in that situation record feeling it, feeling it very, very noticeably and very disturbingly.
Daniel Lapin 19:51
So they there it is action and activity and being able to initiate and precipitate actions. All of these seem to be things that increase masculinity, heightened testosterone, and the opposite effect, another thing everybody probably knows that being around a woman's tears, particularly if it's your woman, reduces a man's testosterone. So, and I think this is fairly well known, what is a little bit less known, but just as interesting, if not more interesting, is that when men cry, their own testosterone drops. And so crying, there are activities you can do which reduce your masculinity as a man. Crying is one of them. And so the old thing about you're a boy, don't cry. You know, suck it up. You just have to take it. Stop crying. Don't be a baby. You're a boy. Boys, don't cry. Now the the whole feminist movement of the last few decades came down on that very heavily. And I just want to let you gentlemen listening, and particularly well all gentlemen, to be very, very aware of this. If you look at the stuff out there, you'll find that the feminist movement, such as it is, has conditioned women to speak approvingly of men who who cry, Oh, I respect a man who cries it shows he's in touch with these feelings. Oh, I admire a man who can cry because it shows that he is in touch with his feminine side. Be aware, gentlemen, that a certain type of woman makes the silly noise all the time, but I want you to note they don't date those guys. Those guys are strictly in the friend zone. Women are not drawn to weeping and crying in a man you know, other other than in the you know. In the case of tragedy and dreadful things happening, obviously, but in terms of, and this is not uncommon today, again, you know, if you're in touch with the popular cultures, as one tries to be, there are men who write to for advice, and They say, you know, my girlfriend left me, and I went to where she lives, and I asked to, I asked if she'd reconsider, and I was crying and crying and crying. And then they're puzzled and baffled that the girlfriend has absolutely no interest at all anyway, all probability they were doing a fair bit of crying before. Not the only factor, obviously, but make no mistake that crying does reduce the masculinity of a man. And men who are not men are not attractive to women. Women are more attracted, in general, to men who are masculine and and that's exactly the way it's meant to be. We are designed and created to be attracted to our opposites, so as these two opposites can join and form something very remarkable, the feminine and the masculine, the strong the ability to project, the ability to initiate, and the softer, the less physically strong, not to say, not mentally and spiritually strong, but the less physically strong, sure, but the idea that we can change and impact our masculinity or our femininity by things we do. This is not so surprising with the Olympics just past, the subject crops up again, as it does every four years. But again, there's loads and loads of literature on the subject, which is that women cease. Women who train very hard, athletes, gymnasts and so on. Women who might train for year after year, after year, they tend to have diminished, or in many cases, completely stopped, fertility cycles again, not unusual. Ballerinas, again, with that incredibly intense physical training happens as well. There was also a time a while back where utility companies began to hire women to do. Do you know the LA? Lineman work. There's a song about being a lineman, but these are people who you know on those long distance electricity transmission lines on towers. Somebody has to regularly go up the tower and repair broken insulators and check it out to make sure it's fine, and they're lugging heavy tool belts or tool boxes and they're climbing up the tower. Well, when they started hiring women linemen, guess what was reported? The women started reporting a diminishing of their fertility cycles as well. That's exactly because it's possible to engage in activities that do diminish one's femininity if you're a woman, and you can engage in activities that diminish your masculinity if you're a man, obviously crying out of disappointment is one of of those things, Of course. So that seems to be something that may actually spread across the entire world of biology and of nature. I don't know for sure, but since they are have not seen the orb spider bite into the the male Firefly that that it's captured. It may be that, just by virtue of being captured, by being rendered impotent, that the the male Firefly starts flashing. Female, I will be watching that space, and I'll obviously let you know if I discover more about it. But it certainly did intrigue me no end. So this is more or less where we will start bringing it in for a landing for today's show.
Daniel Lapin 26:48
And those of you who are part of our wonderful Happy Warrior community, you go right along and enjoy the bonus material on how it is that one can easily learn the tips and the tools and the techniques for more effective communication, for more effective connection, and apparently, connection with others of their species are things that fireflies need, and it's something that we human beings particularly need to a great extent, and obviously, our mouths, our ears, speech is the primary mode of connection to begin with. So until next week, I hope you found it's a little bit different from what I usually do, but it's what I've been intrigued by for the last four or five days. So until next week, please focus on your five F's. Make sure you move onwards and upwards with your family and your finance, your faith, your friendships and your fitness. I'm Rabbi. Daniel Lapin, God bless you.
