The governments of Earth are desperate. They are thrashing around, grasping at straws, manufacturing crisis after crisis. Global warming. Banking. Manufacturing. Avian/swine flu. STDs. Terrorism. Deficits. Anything to increase government control over massive populations, to invoke war-powers acts, to oblige the public to accept 1984-like surveillance and also semi-mandatory mass injections of goodness-knows-what.
This isn't a whacky conspiracy theory. We're imagining. This is an alien romance blog, remember.
New, never before classified cloud formations are discovered. For instance, Asperatus. (I'm interested in clouds. It doesn't mean that they mean anything in particular, but they have potential as hiding places, and as delivery systems, and as shields.)
Meanwhile, UFOs are filmed over Ireland, and in other places. They move like nothing on earth. They're not configured like any super-power's secret aircraft or ABM.
The movie industry puts out movie after movie about aliens. Many are benign. Some are blue. Some have bony heads. Some are Messiah-like ie Klatuu (The Day The Earth Stood Still).... see a partial list of all the movies with aliens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_extraterrestrials
Around 250 of them. Unfortunately, they are listed alphabetically. It would be really interesting to list them chronologically (with a synopsis) to see whether the portrayal of aliens has changed over time, or whether there is any correlation between UFO sightings and subsequent sympathetic (or unsympathetic) alien characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extraterrestrials_in_fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extraterrestrials_in_fiction_by_type
I digressed. Those are really interesting lists, though.
Suppose there really are aliens, and suppose they are very much like us... only more advanced. I presume that aliens would wish to negotiate with us, and that they'd prefer to negotiate, say, with someone like Her Majesty, The Queen of England, rather with an ephemeral, quarrelsome rabble who might be voted out of office before any interstellar treaty could be ratified.
What would be the impact on all of us if these superbeings were all one racial type, and suppose that their one racial type was like our popular image of one of the three Magi?
This is a photograph of a lenticular cloud, but suppose it were a huge, god-like hologram. Imagine what would have happened if, at the same time that this appeared, a voice boomed from the clouds in which "he" is sitting. Suppose it did, maybe over some secluded part of Russia, where former President Putin was fishing, and over Crawford Texas where President Bush was clearing scrub. Or perhaps they appeared to Al Gore. Or Jeff Bezos!
Interesting article about contrails http://www.theozonehole.com/airtraffic.htm
Would international statesmen decide that it would be in Earth's best interests if our one-world leader looked as much as possible like the aliens? How would we achieve that?
How would we manage a one-world government or a one-world leader? It seems that every attempt at global domination by one tribe or another has eventually failed, no matter how benign in concept at the outset (or not!) Plato's Republic, The Third Reich, the Roman Empire, Genghis Khan's Empire, the USSR all collapsed. Maybe Lord Acton's Dictum is all too accurate. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
If we were to try again, (because we really need the aliens' help) how would we go about it?
The options would include an election from among world leaders similar to that of the Pope as shown in The Shoes Of The Fisherman http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/44428/The-Shoes-of-the-Fisherman/overview
Another possibility would be the mystical elevation of a child, much the way a new Dalai Lama is found.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/27/tibet.china1
Would the election of a virtuous child as temporary Queen and figurehead, as in Star Wars, work?
http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/amidala/
Only, I guess, if the aliens were childlike --or hobbitlike-- in appearance.
One of the first issues to solve would be whether humans would want a temporary leader (elected, or rotating) or someone appointed for life (a monarch, a Caesar, a Protector, a Chairman, a Dictator, a Big Brother, an Emperor). This choice might be influenced by the longevity of the aliens, and the need for stability. Then, we'd have to decide whether the leadership would be heredity, and what legal and/or religious mechanisms might need to be in place to remove unsatisfactory leaders.
This isn't one, but it's interesting http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos164.htm
If the aliens were cool with elected bodies, we'd need a global version of Articles of Confederation http://www.usconstitution.
Otherwise, if they insisted on a one-world-leader, we'd want a global Magna Carta
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/magna-carta.htm
If we look to literature, there's Machiavelli's model, and that of 1984 and of Brave New World. We see worlds ruled by consortia of business leaders, cartels, single imperial leaders; by parliaments, by oligarchies, theocracies... the Wiki list is comprehensive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government
In Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, the world is ruled by the Jesuits and the Japanese. In Jack Vance's Demon Princes worlds, distant planets were settled (much as North America was) by exiles and evangelists of various religious denominations.
Is there anything we haven't tried?
Should we try, anyway? If these imaginary aliens want us to have a one-world government, is that a good and sufficient reason to give it to them?
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/
Posts
I'm the child of two politicians one Democrat one Republican, so I grew up with politics at the breakfast table so to speak. I was a PoliSci Major in College because I really didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up and I kept not being able to pass Organic Chemistry which kept me from a Biology degree. I went to a Jesuit College where everyone had to take four semesters of philosophy. Not being a navel gazer I took mostly classes with a political rather than existential leaning.
ReplyDeleteAll that is by way of explanation that I think about things like World Government all the time. My concentration in college was local government not international affairs so that may influence my opinion, but I think that in the ideal world there would be local government and global government only. Everything else seems unnecessary to me. Global government would set the basic rules and regulation, Basic Human Rights Rights, Clean Air/Clean Water/Garbage Disposal standards things like that, and local government would carry it out. Not every locality would carry things out the same way and that would be OK as long as them met the standards.
All localities would have representatives in the Global government and people you would be able to vote for representatives for everywhere but where you live. I think that might prevent too many pork barrel and NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) situations. Also political Campaigns would be funded by the global government with a strict time and cost limit. (For example you couldn't spend more on your campaign than you could make in one year at the job)
I also think there is something to having some government officials elected by professional association. Say a representatives for professional athletes, hairdressers,writers,actors research science, cotton farmers,video producers, steal workers, whatever. Given the niche world that is developing due to globalization and the web I can see having a social or work constituency that is very important, but has nothing to do with where you live.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very interesting and thought-provoking comment.
Taking up your last paragraph, are you suggesting greater trade union power?
If so, would that be at the local level or at the global level?
Models to study might be the British Labor party cramming the House of Lords with politically created, non-hereditary lords. Also the German Werkschutz/Forstandt models where union leaders are on the boards of private companies.
A difficulty (not insurmountable, I'm sure) with an elected Member of Parliament for a professional body might be illustrated by the actions of the Authors Guild vs Google.
The Authors Guild is one of many different writers' associations (there are also SFWA, EPIC, RWA, NWU, MWA etc) The interests of fiction writers and non-fiction writers are not the same.
Not all authors are members of any one "union", yet the Guild has been negotiating on behalf of all authors.
Not all auto workers belong to the UAW, and one might argue that the power of the UAW was absolutely disastrous for the quality of American cars (drunks, drug addicts and absentees allegedly could not be fired by management) and for Health care reform.
Elected lobbyists might be an interesting idea.
I wonder whether there ought to be specific qualifications that all "lawmakers" and "representatives" and "members of Parliament" ought to have.
Perhaps, all candidates for office should have to earn a 6-year degree (maybe an internship?) to ensure that they are qualified in the founding principles upon which society is based (no more case law... know what the Constition or Articles of Confederation mean), in speech delivery, in diplomacy, in anger management.
What should be on the curriculum?
I'm not a huge fan of unions. I had a very bad experience with some union members in a job I worked at as a temp when I was in my 20's and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Let's just say I completely agree with you comment about the bad side of the UAW. On the other hand my sister is an Actress and active in SAG AFTRA and Equity and I have a better view of those unions,although sometimes they have acted to cross purposes they do give a unified voice to a pool of folks who are too spread out geographically to form a unified voting block.
ReplyDeleteI don;t know how it should work but I do see the need for the representation for non-geographic constituencies. Maybe when a group reaches a certain tipping point and can self organize it should be allowed to elect a representative to the government.
I sort of like the idea of the elected lobbyist. I think there is something to be said for professional politicians, and even bureaucrats, even though both are seen as evil by most folks these days. I think much of what is wrong with the US today boils down to a government made up of professional campaigners instead of experts in actually running things.
I visualize a world government as a loose confederation, something like what the European Union is developing into.
ReplyDeleteFunny how no one mentioned the EU. It's here and no one wants to acknowlege it. We look at the EU, our New World Order, and freedoms are slipping away so subtly that no one will admit it. Europe no longer has freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or the right to bear arms. Even elected representation is questionable. Un-elected Bureaucracy makes the rules in Europe. Everything must be Politically Correct... and it's the bureaucrats tell you what's PC. That's what we have to look forward to with a NWO. With a one world government... there's no place to hide, no last, best hope for humanity. Cheery thought ain't it?
ReplyDelete