So humanity, just where is it you think you're going with all this?
Imagine a meeting of two different civilizations. One is ours, the other far more advanced than ours--like the beautiful water aliens in The Abyss--so full of understanding and empathy and warmth. So brilliant and magnanimous. We have waited for this transcendent moment for so long. We proudly show them our bag of progress. They look through it, then look up and their eldest most senior being says:
Really? That's it?? Bombs and cash? No? Not cash? Credit default swaps? I see. Okay. Credit default swaps. A currency of some sort. No? Just paper? Okay. So. This is how you plan on traversing the universe some day? This. This is the master plan?
Bombs and credit default swaps.
And you say you're the leaders? Nothing personal, but you don't look like artists and musicians and poets and philosophers. There's probably not one sculptor or painter or philanthropist among you. To be honest, you look more like... government and military personnel. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But since when are the leaders of an entire civilization comprised of government and military personnel? Seriously, right? No? Not funny, okay. What about the children? Where are the children? You're all adults. How far do you expect to get without the creative intuition and naturally inclusive open-minded social consciousness of children? I mean, who are your teachers?
Bombs and credit default swaps.
Seriously. What have you been doing for--how long have you been here now, millions of years? What's that? Just 5000 years??? But we scanned some of your cave paintings and, well frankly, you'd have to be an idiot to think...come to think of it, why didn't you keep up with those cave paintings? So beautiful. So inspiring. So full of promise. When did you drop that? That's where everything comes from. The knowledge, the shared wonder, the infinite humility. And where are those caves, anyway? What about the mountains? The oceans? The lush forests? Under an invisibility cloak? What's an invisibility cloak?? Never mind.
Bombs and credit default swaps.
Who..who are you people?
And just where do you think you're going with all this???
Really? That's it?? Bombs and cash? No? Not cash? Credit default swaps? I see. Okay. Credit default swaps. A currency of some sort. No? Just paper? Okay. So. This is how you plan on traversing the universe some day? This. This is the master plan?
Bombs and credit default swaps.
And you say you're the leaders? Nothing personal, but you don't look like artists and musicians and poets and philosophers. There's probably not one sculptor or painter or philanthropist among you. To be honest, you look more like... government and military personnel. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But since when are the leaders of an entire civilization comprised of government and military personnel? Seriously, right? No? Not funny, okay. What about the children? Where are the children? You're all adults. How far do you expect to get without the creative intuition and naturally inclusive open-minded social consciousness of children? I mean, who are your teachers?
Bombs and credit default swaps.
Seriously. What have you been doing for--how long have you been here now, millions of years? What's that? Just 5000 years??? But we scanned some of your cave paintings and, well frankly, you'd have to be an idiot to think...come to think of it, why didn't you keep up with those cave paintings? So beautiful. So inspiring. So full of promise. When did you drop that? That's where everything comes from. The knowledge, the shared wonder, the infinite humility. And where are those caves, anyway? What about the mountains? The oceans? The lush forests? Under an invisibility cloak? What's an invisibility cloak?? Never mind.
Bombs and credit default swaps.
Who..who are you people?
And just where do you think you're going with all this???
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August 9, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
ha:))
Does it not all sound so completely and utterly absurd?
August 9, 2009 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
See that funny looking mountain down there,thats really a garbage dump,kind of artistic isnt it? See that multicolored island bobbing in the ocean would you believe thats really plastic bottles? What do you mean it's a reflection of our poor stewardship? See that column of rising smoke,thats the rain forests we are cutting down to make cattle ranches so our fast food restaurants can feed us hamburgers faster and cheaper, pretty smart huh? Are you crying? Hey, dont leave, there's more great things we are doing.
August 10, 2009 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
you already know Gary about my love for cave paintings. Magical. And not being able to draw...I am so enamored with it all. 40,000 years to 13,000 is the best guess. And that 40,000 year old flute.
Turns out fire is at least 800,000 years. ha
We are just a flash in the time pan.... hahhahaa
We shall see.
Unless of course the aliens reside on C-Street
August 10, 2009 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Legend has it that when man first discovered fire, a Republican showed up from out of nowhere and threw a bucket of water on it and said "CHANGE BAD!!"
August 10, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed - where are we going with all of this? You have given a great deal of questions for me to think about here, Gary. So well done and thought provoking. Thank you.
August 10, 2009 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maggie, thanks. There are no answers. There are only smarter questions.
August 10, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dow 36'000, that's where we're going baby!! If just the government will get out of the way, help wipe out those anti-capitalistic 'losses', and give corporations the FREEDOM to set prices as they see fit. WE CAN DO THIS!
August 10, 2009 7:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
For centuries, man has pondered these age-old questions:
Who am I?
Is this all there is?
What is our purpose?
The answer: Dow 36,000 baby!!!
Go humanity go!!
August 10, 2009 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant, tpmgary! This notion of having to justify our "progress" as you suggest is remarkably thought provoking. We should be ashamed - yet shame is so un-American, no? Love it or leave it, and all that.
"It might be bombs and Credit Default Swaps, dammit, but they are OUR bombs and Credit Default Swaps. USA! USA! USA!..." Keep chanting until any threat of rational thought dissipates. Wave the flag. Call yourself a patriot. Be happy. Buy something.
August 10, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Things are way way out of whack, SJ.
Think about it. Watch any cable news show during the day, not just the business stations like CNBC, but general 24 hour cable news and what is it that is plastered in the corner of the screen, for everyone to see, every second of the day?
The S&P.
The Dow.
Nasdaq.
These are our quality of life measures?
This is what we must broadcast 24 hours a day to determine how we're feeling? What our mood is? How we're progressing?
Really? Are we a nation of people? Or just a conglomeration of economic models that must be monitored every nanosecond to chronicle the ever expanding and contracting cycle of profits and losses?
How disconnected is the MSM from the pulse of real life in America?
Has the United States grown into something that doesn't even resemble America? And the lives of its 300 million people?
In Bhutan, they measure gross national happiness. Really.
We might want to get a clue.
How about broadcasting a 24 hour measure of our satisfaction with government?
Our satisfaction with health care?
What about something that measures the 24 hour status of average Americans' hopes and dreams? Something that doesn't have a closing bell.
August 10, 2009 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
oh, got cut off there. What about other leading indicators?
What about our creativity?
Was it a good day for the arts or a bad day?
Or was there no art at all today?
What about a scientific breakthrough optimism or pessimism monitor? "Today, breakthrough potential range is high in the 80s. Scientists are texting in that they feel appreciated this week."
What about an esthetics scale?
August 10, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
You make excellent point here, gary, which promote rational thought. This is exactly what we need, but instead we get the fearmongering and the manipulation by media "experts."
Perhaps the best "leading indicator" of our present sorry stste of our democracy and our economy is the fact that home foreclosures and unemployment are considered a problem ONLY inasmuch as they effect the great unwashed's role as a consumer. For so long as we buy that flat screen TV, life is a carnival. We are in a recovery.
And arts? Hell, make it mainstream and it will only encourages the rabble. Best keep it for the elites who can "appreciate" it, mostly as an investment or as an opportunity for networking.
as for aesthetics, the crowd in charge thinks the color of money is just fine, indeed. And they pretty much don't care how much misery or injustice is papered over to turn their whole world green. It's the DOW, Baby! And it's going up! Break out the champagne!
August 10, 2009 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Point well made gary. I imagine the whales and dolphins are asking the same question. (Star Trek)
August 10, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, Rowan, that Star Trek movie (maybe, Spock suggests, the advanced civilization came to check on the safety of the whales, not us) made me see things so differently.
Very powerful, very enlightening, very humbling. Rare you feel all three at the same time.
August 10, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw a whale yesterday -- alone, not in a pod -- but apparently doing his or her best to communicate: sounding, and then diving straight down, tail thumping, repeatedly, as if tapping out a message in its own form of Morse code. Profoundly moving. Somehow I don't think he/she was saying "Bombs, credit default swaps, or Dow, 36,000."
August 10, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
we can learn a lot from every living breathing soul, right?
August 10, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know that anthropomorphizing can be overly sentimental, Gary, but the whale's eyes.... so worried and/or sad. And the repetitive tail tapping was so intent -- I had not seen that in documentaries.
In any case, we have no "god-given" right to dominion over all the lands and seas and the creatures therein. What we do have is an obligation to value and care for them.
August 10, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
We relate to animals. I don't think anthropomorphizing is ever really too sentimental. (We sometimes see ourselves in their faces. In their expressions. I wonder, do they sometimes see themselves in ours?)
Your sensibilities are right on, WWS.
Respect for life should go well beyond one's own species.
August 10, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its not just respect thats lacking, its understanding. We actually NEED all those other living things were shitting all over and changing genetically for the worse. They live IN us, ON us, and all AROUND us. When we abuse them we suffer.
August 10, 2009 11:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish more people came to that realization, YD. We are only one of nature's guests. When we imperil any bit of nature, we imperil ourselves.
August 11, 2009 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Bombs and credit-default-swaps and Britney, oh my!
Bombs and credit-default-swaps and Britney, oh my!
Bombs and credit-default-swaps and Britney, oh my!"
[links arms with alien and skips down the Yellow Brick Road]
August 10, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I’d love to see the revolving LIVE image
of our Earth in the corner of that TV screen.
And the occasional outtake from Hubble.
Maybe more people would remember where they live
and what it might mean.
Perspective. You bring it all home Gary.
August 11, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink