Insects are often used as metaphors for the human existence and are the subject of cautionary tales such as Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper”. Aesop was so yesterday and this is the age of electronics. So our insect cautionary tales need an update.
What better combines electronics and insects than a Bug Zapper? Bug Zappers are often purchased by people who wish to get rid of mosquitos. However, Bug Zappers unnecessarily kill beneficial and harmless insects while doing too little to control mosquito populations. Many a poor bug enjoying a night time flight is attracted to the light and meets an untimely death. There is an electric metaphor for the human existence!
Songwriter, Bob McLeod, has captured the metaphor in the song Bug Zapper:
“Bug zapper, Such a beautiful light
Bug zapper, Blowing in the night
Lures them in, sets them up,
Blows their mind till they end up stuck
The high flying bug up and died.
He thought he was having fun til he got fried.
Beware the Bug Zapper…….”
I’ve included the song, complete with visuals.
If you want to add it to your collection of insectunes, you can find it on iTunes.
There is quite a metaphor here! To me the meaning of the song is to be careful of what you allow yourself to be drawn into. It could be transposed into larger socialogical context in terms of consumerism. Stuff can be as attractive to us as a bug zapper is to insects but, stuff for us like the bright light to insects, only brings joy for about a split second!
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