Lessons from the Great Bird Attack of 2023: How the Feeling of Scarcity Impacts Our Lives

Most people know that Bob Marley song ‘Three Little Birds’.

A song of relaxed hope that tells us not to worry and to be happy, there is a positively idyllic line that, in the spirit of the song’s name reads, ‘Three little birds pitch by my doorstep singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true.’

Ah. So nice, right? The innocence of nature portrayed at its finest.

Well, unfortunately for me, my doorstep, and the birds in my immediate vicinity, this morning was a different story.

Because just now, as I was sitting outside getting some work done, I watched three little birds land in front of me. I listened as they chirped sweetly. I watched as they hopped around in search of worms in the wet ground.

And then I looked on as these three little birds proceeded to attack one another because one of them got a worm and the other two decided to stage a shakedown.

While these birds were busy attacking each other, I could help but notice the other birds that had gathered around the many bird feeders mere feet away from the scene. I looked around at the acres of undisturbed, freshly rained upon grass and dirt - bird free and probably crawling with worms.

And yet. Here were these birds occupying approximately 2 square feet total - attacking each other because one of them got something the other two wanted. So obviously the only choice for the two birds to get a worm for themselves was to go on the attack.

How very… human… of them

The realities of scarcity

One of the funniest things to me about today’s world is that there are countless people who insist until they are blue in the face that scarcity is not real, not even a little bit. Our thoughts create our reality and therefore if we are experiencing any type of scarcity, it’s entirely a figment of our imagination.

That stance has always seemed a bit gaslighty to me.

Scarcity is a concept used to describe a phenomena that naturally occurs in the world. Sometimes, the need (or perceived need) for a particular thing transcends the actual quantity of that thing - even if only for a moment. Everyone I know has experienced this.

For example, if I needed 9 hours of sleep, but I got 3, there was - at least last night - a scarcity of rest.

Or, 50 guests attend the wedding but there are only 40 chairs. There is - at least for a moment - a scarcity of seating.

The plant needs x amount of water to survive, but it has only rained half of that amount. There is - at least in that instance - a scarcity of water.

Scarcity is not a far-fetched creation of the human ego. It’s a real thing. It happens.

However, on the flip side of the ‘scarcity is imaginary’ stance - there is an equal but opposite stance that is also incorrect. And to highlight this, it’s important to distinguish around the concept of scarcity vs the feeling of scarcity.

Feeling scarce

As I’ve already mentioned, scarcity is simply a word that describes the concept of supply being lower than demand. However, because of so many different structures that humanity has built throughout the ages - capitalism, white supremacy, and the patriarchy to name a few - most of us have grown very accustomed to the feeling of scarcity.

The feeling of scarcity is what gets evoked when an advertisement convinces you that purchasing that couch will give you what you’ve been missing in your life.

The feeling of scarcity is what gets evoked when you’ve been convinced that working 90 hours weeks will prove that you’re worthy of that promotion even though it’s clear that what will get you that promotion has nothing to do with the quality or quantity of your work.

It’s different based on the person or the situation, but most people experience the feeling of scarcity as some combination of fear, resentment, apathy, or entrapment.

And the feeling of scarcity is in most cases, for most people reading this article, much more insidious and immediately threatening than actual scarcity.

Here’s why.

Back to the great bird attack of 2023…

I’m no ornithologist, but if you will allow me to anthropomorphize the three fighting birds for the sake of a solid analogy…

What the two birds acted on when they decided to attack the bird with the worm was the feeling of scarcity - not the actuality of scarcity.

As I mentioned, there is so much bird food around right now, it’s ridiculous. However, those birds saw that worm. And in that moment, yes, there was factual scarcity around that specific worm. But that factual scarcity is actually no big deal. Net total, there is a massive abundance of worms in the immediate vicinity.

It’s the feeling of scarcity that has the power to tell us all that the disappearance of that worm means the total scarcity of all worms.

I’m going to bet that you know what this is like, because literally every person I’ve ever spoken to knows what this is like.

You have to pay unexpected taxes, and so while the factual scarcity is that you have less money than you expected in this moment right now, you suddenly feel like that means you’ll never have money every again.

You are rejected from three jobs, and so while the factual scarcity is that you want a new job and currently you don’t have one yet, you suddenly feel like you’ll be stuck in your current role forever.

You made a request to your boss and they denied it. So while the factual scarcity is that what you wanted isn’t approved right now, you suddenly feel like every request you’ll ever make in the future will be denied.

And then, based on the conflation of fact and feeling, you make decisions that are ill-informed, and well, as laughable as three birds fighting over a worm when hundreds of worms are within a beak’s reach.

You stop focusing on activities that actually bring in money and start developing 200 side hustle contingency plans.

You stop applying to jobs all together, having decided it’s never going to happen.

You stop communicating any requests to your boss, and so you create a self-fulfilling prophecy of burden and misery because you’ve decided they’ll never say yes.

Feelings are not facts, and facts are not feelings.

Both are important parts of the information equation. And when it comes to the scarcity equation, most of us do a terrible job at parsing out which we are dealing with.

Are there times where factual scarcity is terrifying? Absolutely. Unfortunately there are people who live in terrifyingly factual scarcity around food, shelter, and safety every day.

But if you are reading this from the modern world, from a place with electricity and running water, from a roof that is resting over your head - 99% of the scarcity you are grappling with is the feeling of scarcity.

The feeling of scarcity is what is distracting you from handling any actual scarcity with focus, strategy, and effectiveness.

And when we are in a position to see with clarity what is actually happening, we have enormous power to free up a ton of mental and emotional space.

Then, not only can we handle the scarcity in our lives with greater ease, but we can have the capacity to be even more helpful to the world around us.