Mother Nature's "Self-Propelled Flowers"

Without question, one of G-d’s most unique and fascinating creatures is the butterfly, of which there are more than 24,000 individual species. Scientifically, they are of class insecta, order lepidoptera, and suborder Rhopalocera. They are among nature’s most colorful entities and unlike virtually any other thing on earth, spend far more time metamorphosing from seed to fully actualized creature than living as an adult. (Depending on the species, it can take upwards of a year to go from seed to caterpillar to chrysalis to full-fledged butterfly. And yet, the average lifespan of an adult butterfly is no more than 40 days.)

And, unlike just about anything that lives, it starts out as a work of great physical ugliness - a caterpillar - and winds up as one of nature’s most colorful beauties. The late science fiction writer Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers) referred to them as “. . . self-propelled flowers.” Another writer, Anton Chekov, in comparing butterflies and moths to human beings noted: “In nature, a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with humans it is [often] the other way around: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.” Me thinks both writers were on to a great truth.

Heinlein, because his terse description is so apt; Chekov, because he understood that many otherwise good people inexplicably devolve into base, gullible and purely repulsive creatures. In the first instance - that of understanding butterflies to be Nature’s “self-propelled flowers,” we here in South Florida have only to get into our cars, drive a few miles, and treat ourselves to a glorious afternoon at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek which bills itself as “The Butterfly Capital of the world.” Located at 3600 W. Sample Road, Butterfly World encompasses 3 acres of butterfly aviaries, botanical gardens, a working butterfly farm and a research center. Over the past 30+ years, the park has expanded to include 2 additional aviaries for tropical birds and an interactive lorikeet encounter, as well as a skilled aviculture care and research staff to support these endeavors. Today, Butterfly World is the home to thousands upon thousands of different species of these colorful winged creatures. It is a marvelous place to spend an afternoon, and to my way of thinking, is one of the holiest spots on earth . . .

For his part, Anton Chekov (1860-1904), the greatest of all Russian playwrights (The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard) and short-story writers (Rothschild’s Fiddle, The Lady With the Little Dog, The Death of a Government Clerk) was a close student of the human condition, who easily grasped both human weakness and misdirection . . . the beauty of the butterfly and the repulsive nature of the caterpillar. I have to believe that were Chekov alive today, he would not be at all surprised by how a butterfly refuge at the Texas border had become the target of appalling lies created by the conspiratorial crazies who fly the flag of QAnon.

What in the world could a butterfly conservatory have to do with QAnon . . . the anonymous online lunatics who a couple of years ago somehow tens (hundreds?) of thousands of gullible souls that a popular Washington, D.C.-area pizza parlor (“Comet Ping Pong”) was engaged in a child sex trafficking conspiracy - all under the watchful eye of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Originally born in 2016, the so-called “Pizzagate” conspiracy - despite world-class debunking - is still alive and kicking, mostly on Tic Tok.

A week ago last Wednesday, the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, closed indefinitely after a couple of years of wild QAnon conspiracy theories and mounting threats of violence, including a physical altercation with a Republican congressional candidate from Virginia demanding ". . . to see all the illegals crossing on the raft," according to a piece in The Texas Tribune. On any given day, hundreds of species of butterflies travel through the 20-year-old nonprofit sanctuary, the Houston Chronicle reports. "Birders from across the country visit the refuge to observe and photograph birds unique to the Rio Grande Valley, and thousands of local schoolchildren take field trips to the center each year."

The center’s founder, Dr. Gary Glassberg, a lifelong lover of butterflies who also developed the process of DNA fingerprinting, issued a statement about the current conspiracy which forced the center to close its gates: “We know it’s a dangerous lie . . . . People say you’re raping babies, then unhinged people come out of the woodwork.” Marianna Trevino Wright, the center’s longtime executive director, who has actually received death threats, told the New York Times “When I took this job, I thought I would be able to spend a good amount of time outdoors: butterflies, birds, educating children, writing grants . . . . Now every day my children literally worry whether I’m going to survive a day at work.” What in the world could have brought this all about? In a word: Trump’s Border Wall.

In 2017, the National Butterfly Center sued the Trump administration to block construction of a border wall through its property. Two years later, "We Build the Wall" chief Brian Kolfage posted doctored photos of the butterfly sanctuary's dock, claiming it was being used for migrant transport and child sex trafficking. During the wall-funding campaign, Kolfage repeatedly attacked the butterfly center on social media. “Instead of enabling women and children to be sex trafficked like @NatButterflies, we are taking action! This is a war for control of the most powerful country,” (It should be noted that Kolfage was later indicted for allegedly misusing funds for his nearby crowdfunded border wall.) In a country where many believe that Satan-worshiping pedophiles run the government and that the resurrection of John F. Kennedy Jr. will restore a Trump presidency in 2024 (if not sooner), the butterfly center has become the latest unlikely victim of wild misinformation and outright lies spreading rapidly online.

Simply - and hauntingly - stated, the National Butterfly Center has become a borderland version of Comet Ping Pong.

So what can the majority - the ones whom Anton Chekov sees as being beautiful - do about the growing minority of caterpillars who believe every conspiracy put out by Alex Jones, Steve Bannon and the anonymous, eponymous “Q?” It seems to me that responsible members of the mainstream media should bluntly, unhesitatingly question every right-wing, ultra conservative politician during their campaign appearances and press conferences and ask them how they respond to charges that the National Butterfly Center is running an underground child sex-trafficking ring or that John F. Kennedy Jr., never died and is going to reemerge to campaign for Donald Trump in 2024 or any of a number of other ludicrous notions. Force them to admit they know it’s all a crock . . . or that they whole-heartedly support these conspiracies. Force them to answer whether or not they support the likes of QAnon, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and all the others who have devolved from butterflies to caterpillars.

To a great extent, various types of media share a mutual responsibility for the growth and spread of toxic and even lethal conspiracies. And in the long-run, it will take the concerted effort of various types of media to act as a rampart against the onslaught.

Let every caterpillar evolve!