It was really interesting to read that evaluating whether you have, or not, chances of winning in a confrontation could lead to avoiding conflict overall. It is obviously common sense, but I have the feeling that in the human world, there are a lot of exceptions, haha. Ego and foolish ambitions often led people to poorly evaluate their chances and die prematurely.
I really liked the part about sneaking! I believe such strategies fall under intelligent fighting if I’m not wrong. One may not have physical strength, but they outsmart their enemy. Speaking of which, I believe in Asian combat styles, intelligent fighting is quite common. For instance, aged fighters who go against younger ones. The veterans don’t move very much and use their blows efficiently. They don’t hit often, but their hits are impactful. Also, female fighters can act deceiving and make a deadly weapon out of a simple pin or a fan.
The details about the elephants and beetles were fascinating! I had never heard of these things before. The strange thing is that pondering about all the situations of elephants and beetles, I came to the conclusion that survival is a war in itself. It is almost discouraging to think that you need to struggle so much for elementary needs. It makes you feel the resources are scarce. And here I am, thinking until now that, for most living creatures, the planet was abundant in resources. I guess I was naive, haha. Or perhaps, I’m exaggerating now.
That aside, if I’m thinking of it at a more philosophical level, I could say life is precious because all living things are fighting for it, and is strong because most of the living creatures survive.