States Of Trauma

Richard Dawkins’ metaphors, particularly the one concerning the mimickry of certain butterfly species, can be compared to the United States’ embryonic development as a nation. Mimickry, as The Selfish Gene explains, is the basis of survival of certain harmless species that are preyed upon. It is easier to change the appearance than to completely transform the defense system into an attacking one. This is why certain species of butterflies and other insects have learned to mirror similar species’ characteristics, particularly those species that are dangerous to their predators. In doing so, the butterflies can fool their hunters by making them think that they are to be feared. One could almost say that they use the predators’ trauma to their advantage.

After the American Revolutionary era, people were traumatized by the tyrannical power that ruled them, and vowed to avoid a powerful central government at all costs. Although the fact that the British crown’s power didn’t inspire the hatred, the way in which that power was used did. In the same way that the butterflies’ predators, the birds, fear all strong colors because one species with strong colors was dangerous, so did the people of the new nation fear all strong governments because one power had gone bad.