By Charles Bivona

Inspired by Dear Anti Diary

Bizarro is a fictional character created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a “mirror image” of Superman. He first appeared in Superboy #68 (1958). Since then various iterations of Bizarro have appeared – often, but not always, as an antagonist to Superman. [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

I’m a big fan of symbiosis. You know, when organisms live in simultaneous cooperation. It’s like a perfect yin yang of survival. The bird eating plaque from between a crocodile’s teeth, for example—have you ever seen that? Tiny feathered dentists pecking at mouths full of razors. A crocodile could just close its mouth. At any moment, one could just clomp down and…bird treat. But the carnivore doesn’t. Clean, healthy teeth is the key to a croc’s longevity, and long term survival trumps all. So, the lucky bird gets a guaranteed meal in exchange for the effort of eating. It’s beautiful, really.

This brand of cooperation is ordinary in nature. Bees breed the flowers as they gather pollen for honey. The Aphid survives on Ant shit. Seriously, look it up. Some organisms—Lichens for example—even exist as permanent fusions of two others. Lichens  consist of a symbiotic association between a fungus  and a plant. The two become almost one in the highest form of biological cooperation—feeding and protecting one another.

In that state, Lichens are capable of surviving the most extreme environments on Earth—“arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts and toxic slag heaps,” Wikipedia boasts. And Lichens require very little water. It appears that, not surprisingly, cooperation gives the Lichens almost everything they need. Cooperation, in nature, is the obvious choice.

So, then why is my species—one of the most intelligent, I might add—so hung up on competition? Why do we, with free will, choose to follow these destructive programs of war metaphor, war reality? Because this country was founded on it? Because the founders, or the prophets, or whoever once said so? And because they were great, or something or other? I hear this argument a lot—and it’s nonsense.

The framers and organizers of our societies were not great people. Their theories have mutilated our nature—whatever that is.

At our base, we are tribal creatures. We survived on a planet of much stronger, deadlier animals. We survived by working as a community. This is our species history, and it is evident in us. It defines the needs of our psyches. Solitary confinement is punishment because we are social by evolution. We lose our biological self when isolated. Ultimately, we lose our sanity. We all know this is true. Loneliness can kill.

So if it’s so obvious, if we all know this, why do hoarders deny it? If we are meant to cooperate, all of us, and we know this, why do we allow the few to declare wars? Why don’t we refuse to fight them? Why don’t we choose not to compete for the little they’ve left behind?

We must each open our own eyes. We must each make a conscious choice to resist competition and learn to cooperate for survival. That’s my plan, anyway, my human tribe. I’m going to exercise my free will and emulate the Lichens. Symbiotic business. Symbiotic life. You all do what you will. As always, the choice is yours.

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