Why Panic if Space Aliens Land?
Supposedly, the existence of space aliens would cause mass panic on earth. I have tried for years to understand why this panic would take place. After all, the probability that other life exists in the universe is high; indeed life is everywhere present, but that’s not what seems to get us. Space algae or space fungi probably doesn’t bother us much, but we appear to be afraid that life exists that is very much like we are.
Men, little green men perhaps, beings much like us in their motivations, but foreign, alien, invading. And why would they invade other worlds? Why would we? Have we ever done so? Of course, we have. One tribe has been invading another for millenia, “loot thy neighbor” is the default position throughout history. Not just tribes hustling their camels or steppe ponies to slaughter their neighbors and take their stuff, but glorified “explorers” invading native lands to kill, enslave and exploit. So we assume space aliens are up to the same thing. They want to take our land, our resources, make us their food or their slaves-AND they have better weapons. See the movie War of the Worlds (or any space invader flick) for this stereotype.
Loot thy neighbor is not lost in the distant past, either. It’s going on today, just on a sneakier level, because let’s face it, it’s a nasty, criminal, behavior and we’d like to think we’re good people. So our leaders call it, “restoring freedom” or “democracy” these days. The sun never set and the blood always flowed during the British empire, and all the other empires for that matter. British imperialist Cecil Rhodes put it well:
“We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies.”
The Imperial Dream is still alive and leaving its bloody footprints. So any aliens who arrive here must have come for the same reason. Yeah, that would be cause for panic-mankind reaping what it has sown. The only way to avoid the fear of choices and consequences would be to stop that empire s**t.
Can we grow up? Can we be honest? Can we stop looting our neighbors? Can we make some moral, as well as technological progress?
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