In my humble opinion

Hive-mind mentality

By JONATHAN CHARLES FOX
Posted 9/21/22

Also known as groupthink, the hive mind has become a part of the zeitgeist, and pops up in my addlepated brain as the annual Honeybee Festival approaches. Folks are already buzzing about the event, …

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In my humble opinion

Hive-mind mentality

Posted

Also known as groupthink, the hive mind has become a part of the zeitgeist, and pops up in my addlepated brain as the annual Honeybee Festival approaches. Folks are already buzzing about the event, which takes place in beautiful Narrowsburg, NY, on Saturday, September 24.

“Hmmm,” I mused within earshot of the dog, who hightailed it out of the room as I rummaged through drawers searching for her honeybee costume. She won’t be alone in costume, for there will be scores of dogs, and thousands of people, all decked out in black and yellow for the festivities.

Those include a roster of activities and vendors lining Main Street in the ‘burg this weekend, all out for a great time, and of course, sharing a collective social consciousness needed to protect and defend the honey bee, which we mere humans desperately need to survive.

I thought about that while attending the Big Eddy Film Festival’s opening-night film “32 Sounds” last weekend. It included the familiar buzz of insects, as the engrossed audience sat rapt with attention, each of us wearing headsets in a hive-mind-like immersive film experience that I highly recommend.

While chatting with film festival attendees Rocky Pinciotti and Val Mansi, I brought up the honey bees and all things “B” in general. I pontificated about “B-movies,” and “B-people,” while regaling them with amusing (IMHO) anecdotes regarding my experiences with the same. I shared a story about meeting Zsa Zsa Gabor years ago while working on a Labor Day telethon. Afterr turning to me off-camera and saying “hook my bra, darling,” she informed me that all of the movie stars in the room were “B-people” and unworthy of sharing the stage with her. I made the wise choice not to remind Zsa Zsa that she starred in the 1958 cult classic “Queen of Outer Space,” and quietly secured her bra strap as instructed. “B-people” indeed.

As I made my way to Jeffersonville, NY the next day, I momentarily thought about bees, but concentrated instead on the festivities surrounding the Jeff Jamboree and the duck races, with a tractor parade thrown in for good measure. Dharma was in her stroller, but I had forgotten her duck costume, so she was off the hook. We schmoozed, took pics and had a blast as always, but the hive-mind-mentality thing continued to niggle at my mind, suggesting that others were surely thinking the same thing.

When I brought it up with River Reporter sales guru Barbara Winfield, who had joined me in handing out papers at the Jamboree, she asked what it meant. “The hive mind mentality,” I replied with great authority, “refers to the desire for harmony or conformity in a group. Not my specialty,” I added with a wink, but it reminded me of something the great Bette Midler once said in concert. “B-flat” she intoned to her adoring public, “b-sharp if you must, but above all else,” she advised, “b-natural.” I’ve never forgotten her quirky musical advice.

And while we’re on the subject of “B-movies,” I would be remiss (see what I did there?) if I didn’t mention the Sequoia Pictures’ 1973 classic “Invasion of the Bee Girls”—the plot of which is simply described as “a powerful cosmic force is turning Earth women into queen bees who kill men by wearing them out sexually.” It starred major motion picture actresses Anitra Ford and Victoria Vetri as “ordinary housewives who turn into ravishing creatures.”

I don’t think there will be a screening of that next year at the Big Eddy Film Festival, but one can hope.

For more information regarding the upcoming honeybee festival, go to www.narrowsburgbeefest.com

Fun Fact: a “B-movie” is defined as a low-budget production, one made for use as a companion to the main attraction in a double feature. Ask your grandpa to tell you what that was.

And this dictionary definition: Zeitgeist—“The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.”



groupthink, insects, bee, honey

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