Sohila Elattar - Week 10 - Strength in Numbers: Lessons from A Bug's Life

After Trump’s inauguration, I have seen lots of talk on TikTok about “having a revolution” and “winter boots.” Which I doubt will happen, because the American people can never seem to join together and actually make change happen. I saw a TikTok recently about how Americans should boycott some companies, and more than half of the comments were saying things like “What does that have to do with me?” As well as things like, “I can not give up Target,” and other things like that. I mean if we can not even join together to boycott a couple of companies, how would we be able to come together as a people and start a “revolution?” 

However, I am not here to discuss. I am just using the recent event to connect to what I am really here to talk about. 


During this discussion on TikTok, I saw a post that wrote that Americans outnumber billionaires from 1000 to one. Which reminded me of the “A Bug’s Life” movie. More specifically the line said by Hopper, “You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up to us. Those puny little ants outnumber us 100 to one and if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life.”



If you do not know the story of “A Bug’s Life” let me give you a mini summary. There is a colony of ants that is being exploited to find food by a large group of grasshoppers that are being led by a grasshopper named Hopper. The main character, Flik, accidentally causes problems for his colony by unintentionally destroying their food supply. This causes him to be banished from his colony; looking for warriors after his banishment he finds a group of quirky circus bugs mistaking them for warriors and asking for their assistance, to which they agree. In the end, Flik confronts the grasshoppers, and in the end, the ants band together and chase away the grasshoppers. The movie ultimately explores themes of power when coming together and being courageous when facing adversity.


This leads me to the last topic to tie all this together. Which is quality vs. quantity. In this movie, the grasshoppers were obviously stronger, they were bigger and stronger, while the ants were thin and petite. However, the ant’s power came from the large amount of them, and not their individual strength.

So is quantity better in terms of strength and power? Or is quality, those who have more power, in wealth, status, or government officials stronger? 


Or maybe the real question is if we, “the ants,” would consider standing together and realize that we do have power. And could we come together and make a change, even if we start at something so simple as a boycott?


Comments

  1. Elsa FanFebruary 4, 2025 at 9:40 PM

    Hi Sohila! I think it was really funny that both of us mentioned the topic of “winter boots” and various other trends on TikTok in our blogs this week. I think that we share very similar perspectives about the way that we view this situation, and I definitely agree that the current dissent expressed on social media probably won’t amount to anything significant. It’s difficult for a whole population to agree to take action, and I think that many people prefer to just complain rather than doing real acts of resistance.

    I really liked how you were able to connect America’s current situation to the movie, “A Bug’s Life,” and I was also able to learn the plot of the movie through your description! On a more serious note, however, it was very interesting to see the way you presented the roles of influential figures in this paragraph, as I think we often forget that these people only have power because we view them in that way. I also liked how you ended with a discussion about quality versus quantity, which is something that I never thought about applying to the topic of power. I think that your writing serves as a reminder that “regular people” have more power than they think, and that we’re able to make a difference through unifying and proving our strength as a group. Overall, I think that your blog post this week was very intriguing and I love how you ended with an open-ended question. Thanks for sharing Sohila!

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  2. Svitra RajkumarFebruary 5, 2025 at 2:07 PM

    Hi Sohila! I found your blog very intriguing, particularily the way you were able to compare A Bug's Life to the current ideas of revolution circulating social media. Themes of revolution and standing together against oppression seems a lot simpler than it actually is, especially the way it is depicted in a movie directed towards a younger audience. Fear, laziness many other factors are what is stopping people from actually standing together and starting a boycott. People are so comfortable in their lifestyle that they are willing to ovelook the problems that are coming to the surface until it directly impacts that lifestyle. I agree that we could hold more power if we stand together, and the only way that could happen is if people start seeing the bigger picture and stop thinking, "'What does that have to do with me?'"

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  3. Ayush SharmaFebruary 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM

    Hello Sohila! I found the topic of your Blog really interesting, and the way you incorporated the recent TikToks that you saw was really cool to me. “Strength in Numbers,” a saying that has been around for many, many years, and has been a pinnacle to increase the amount of unity a certain organization, team, or population has towards a certain issue. For example, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) team the Golden State Warriors had this saying during their years at Oracle Arena and their four championship runs. This saying really helped all the fans have a sense of pride and unity, and the arena during all of the basketball home games was extremely loud due to the fans and their overall energy. We can tie this back to modern-day situations, and how a lot of problems and challenges can be handled if human beings just stick together and figure out a solution for the adversity being faced.

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