Discussion Questions for “The Grumbling Hive,” Day 2
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For tomorrow, I’d like you to create your own discussion questions for our second day of discussing Bernard Mandeville’s “The Grumbling Hive.” What should we be talking about?
Please post at least one question as a comment to this post. Good questions are often about a specific line or section of a text, or about a specific concept that the author is using — but that’s just a general suggestion. If you’d like to ask a question that contrasts or connects “The Grumbling Hive” with other texts we’ve read so far, feel free to do so. If you find a point in the text, or think that Mandeville’s ideas raise a question, problem, or conflict, then that’s definitely worth asking a question about.
And if you think that one of your classmates has asked an especially good question, then feel free to tell them so in comments.
Lines 404-405: “Hard’ned with toils and exercise, They counted ease itself a vice;”
What kind of “ease” does Mandeville refer to here in the poem and how do we see it today? Why would this be a vice?
(lines 327-332) How was having forces abroad valuable to the hive? Is today’s society vain because of the wars we fight?
(Lines 333-334): How do honesty and trade agree? Mandeville’s view is that they do not. To what extent does our economy rely on honesty?
Why does Mandeville bother with the bees metaphor if he goes ahead and tells you at the beginning that you are really reading about people? What does the idea of bees effect the scope through which you read the poem?
Lines 388-390 say that content is the bane of industry because it causes them to admire what they have and seek no more. Mandeville’s point in the entire poem seems to be that honesty and moderation are bad because the industry ceases to thrive. But if all are content, why is industry so important? Is being content sufficient enough? Is one more important than the other?
(Lines 372-374) Mandeville references clothing and fashion here, just as he did in the section we read yesterday. How has his description changed since the community has become honest, and what does it tell us about the bee’s lives now that the change has occured?
“As Price and Luxury decrease,/So by degrees they leave the Seas./Not Merchants now, but Companies/Remove whole Manufactories./All Arts and Crafts neglected lie;/Content, the Bane of Industry,/Makes ‘em admire their homely Store,/And neither seek nor covet more.” (383-390)
Is Mandeville’s moral valid? Can there be no industry without greed? Are there any successful examples of economies that didn’t depend wholly on consumerism to run?
“The very Moment it departs,/And Honesty fills all their Hearts;/
There shews ’em, like th’ Instructive Tree,/ Those Crimes which they’re asham’d to see.” (232-235)
According to Mandeville, greed and cheating (lying, deceiving) people are some of the key factors that made a community of bees thrive. Additionally if there was a community that wanted honesty, that community would crumble. So what makes a large community thrive? Shouldn’t there be a balance of honesty and deceit?