The following was inspired by the film I just saw: The Day the Earth stood still - the 2008 remake with Keanu Reeves - not the 50's classic. Not the worst film I've seen this year, but Jesus H. Christ, philosophically, that film was cheese. And not even good cheese.
Anyway - spoilers - in the end Klaatu [the incarnate son of the sphere-god] sacrifices himself on the cross, er, sphere once again to save humanity [in which he has found some goodness, or at least noble self sacrifice for one's child, or at least PC WASP sacrifice for genetically unrelated black kid - ie: altruism of the non "it doesn't count if it's kin-selection" kind] from the klutches of the vengeful old-testament GORT er, God, er, GORT.
So far so Americanized Post-Christian NewMyth™.
And then, presumably to ensure mankind doesn't fall back into a state of 'evil-world-destroying-exploitativenessnessness' the very biblical plague of nano-locusts eat all our technology, reducing us back to default noble-savagery.
Gee. Thanks. Hyper-intelligent alien zoo-keepers. Duh.
"Just give us a chance" the heroine-scientist says - through tear-stained eyes, clutching the doll-like object of her "proof-there-is-hope-for-humankind" altruism to her diminutive bosom...
...And !POOF! the lights go out. Now we'll be good. Because we 'have a good side' - just like the butterfly above. We can be "good".
Just like that. Poof.
What a fucking great steaming pile of self-deception.
I saw some butterflies yesterday. A very peculiar species. They have two phenotypes - one black, one white. The Black ones are evil. They'll bite you and steal your children, turn them into little butterfly bootees for winter-wear. The White ones, they are good - lotta work for charity, pull you out of an earthquake fallen building, fix your car. Nice. Shudderingly so.
You put them in a jar, isolate them, and they die, all of them. Strange. Then I had an idea, I painted some of the rooms in my house black, and some white. Then I released the butterflies from the jar.
They dispersed in all directions. Randomly, or near as damnit.
The kitchen was jet. The white butterflies all dropped dead in there within hours. The blacks settled down on the lustrous noir and bred. The bathroom was white - there the opposite occurred - it soon dripped with niceness - I never had to wipe my own bottom for as long as the white butterflies were there. Bless. Had to eat take-out though, the blacks kept poisoning the contents of the fridge. Bastards.
The question though is of course...
Why is the kitchen evil and the bathroom good..? Is it the fault of the butterflies..? Did they choose..?
Nah, the enviromental conditions pre-existing to their introduction dictated it. When everything around you is black, when everyone around you is black of heart, you'd better blend my friend, blend. Blend or die.
And this is what Klaatu and the whole extra-terrestrial-sphere-crew forgot in their rush to archive the Earth and erradicate the naughty monkies.
Because when the place in which you live is black and white, but you don't know exactly where you'll land...
...The other day as I was walking past the evil kitchen, on my way to the good bathroom I was surprised to see a grey.
No, not the alien kind.
A grey butterfly, meandering about. Curious, I followed it. It headed toward the kitchen and alighted on the (black) tabletop. All around the evil black butterflies rustled malevolently. Instantly, the grey turned black. And so survived.
I soon saw another, this time it landed on the rim of the bath next to me. The nearby whites all chirruped and sang happy motivational songs. Instantly, the grey turned white.
And this is us. This little grey butterfly. Ready, willing (and able) to do whatever is required, be whatever is required by the prevailing situation, wether enviromental, or social, to survive. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, all life - human, Klaatuan or other, must be like this - because those that don't, overcome by those that do - do not persist.
Evil for evil's sake alone, is always erradicated by the outraged masses, every pretty-cheerleader-shower-mutilation-victim always has a brother/father/mother/uncle.
Goodness - goodness of the spastic, reflexive kind - is exploited, bottled, and enslaved by those very same masses, even though they constantly sing its praises. And why not..? - it's like finding oil in your back yard - if you don't use it, someone else will.
"But life's not so Black and White" I hear you say...
Aha.
No, you're right - it's not. But when push comes to shove - we soon make it that way.
I left a spot in the kitchen a sparkling white - just as a control experiment - and yes, for a while, a few ardent white butterflies toughed it out amongst all those blacks. They were a little constrained for space, but still served as a shining white beacon of hope in those dark, dark times.
For a while.
But you see, soon the blacks got crowded too, the kitchen is only so large. And soon the wingtips of the blacks closest to the white section overlapped the divide. Extending the blackness inward, ever so slightly. This increase in turn meant more blacks could edge along the velvet dark, riding on the wings beneath. Every day more and more of the whiteness disappeared. And soon, black ruled without challenge.
[Btw. The colours are dicated by convention, not by rabid racism on my part. If you like, substitute polkadots for black and stripes for white. I don't care.]
ie: Although the enviroment provides the spur toward goodness/badness - the two traits themselves have a momentum of their very own, which should not be forgotten.
That said then, was Klaatu right..? Do humans have a 'good' side, which can be brought out in times of crisis..?
Er. Yes and no. Yes humans have a good side, but no, it is not brought out by crisis. The only thing that survives a crisis is that which did whatever it had to to survive the crisis. Maybe that involved nice things like bucket chains and singing and helping old ladies out of the rubble. But maybe it didn't, maybe it involved beating your friend to death for his water-bottle and then eating his liver.
Depends on the situation: The blitz for example. Everyone was nice to each other. Why..? They were all equal, because the bombs were a random force, impossible to influence. It could have been anyone's house that got bombed, so everyone helped everyone regardless of ties so that everyone would continue to help everyone, regardless of ties. Shared and inescapable threat produces niceness - just so long as that threat cannot be influenced or sided with to individual beneficiary effect.
But, if you're alone in the desert, or in a lifeboat with not enough water, and a very-very low chance of rescue - then eating your buddy is de-rigueur. Some situations demand niceness, some not-so-niceness.
And, I'm afraid, leaving poor old mankind without its technology... Is the second kind of crisis - the buddy-eating one.
Stupid Aliens. If they'd really wanted to make humanity nice, they should have taken away its reasons to be nasty. Territory, and energy. Our two eternal bug-bears.
So, Aliens, if you're listening. Don't get all GORT on our asses, we're just like you. Give us instead free, clean and abundant vaccuum energy, spaceships that go faster than the pieces of crap we have at the moment, and terraforming technology.
Then we promise we'll be good. Honest.
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