Any research report on the planet Earth would come to some grim conclusions. Can you imagine it?
“The beautiful green and blue planet is unfortunately overrun with a particularly destructive form of vermin, a mammal known indigenously as Humankind. While highly advanced cognitively, this species is unable to live in harmony with the diverse special that once inhabited the planet. The only species that thrive are those bred to serve the comforts of humans, and these are kept well until they are killed for food or fabrics. Thousands of other species are made extinct every year. Humans seem intent on destroying their own planet even as they live in it”.
This excellent research study would consider the forms of organisation of the human pests, including the land-grabbing, resource-wasting propensities of the species, and would note some interesting features of government.
“While humans in many nations live under a system of government known as democracy, in theory giving a free vote to each person, this system is so corrupted by greed, vice and avarice, jealousy and hatred, that good choices are rarely made”.
On Trump?
“To take one example, the citizens of the most powerful country in the world have recently elected as President a person driven entirely by corporate greed, a lascivious attitude towards women, the need to win, low impulse control, an apparent absence of emotional intelligence and a lack of ability to tell the truth. Recent assessments have questioned both his mental health and his fitness for office.
“It could be argued that people who voted for him – mainly males with a disposition not to trust organised government – are getting from Mr Trump exactly what they voted for”.
Finally, the report would undoubtedly comment on the propensity for humans to destroy themselves and their planet through war:
“For a short period in their history, the humans have held the capacity to destroy their whole planet with large thermo-nuclear explosive devices. For around 70 years use of these weapons was largely prevented by a balanced geo-politics known as ‘MAD’, or mutually assured destruction. However, Mr Trump evidently is quite taken with the idea of using such weapons against a tinpot dictator known as Kim Jong-un in a country in the Asian region. A recent exchange between these two unchecked leaders, where each boasted of the large size of the nuclear buttons on their desks, verged on the insane. A follow-up to this initial report may not be necessary if the human vermin manage to destroy themselves”.
The planet Earth research report would also, no doubt, comment on gender relationships. It would note the high level of oppression of women in some parts of the world, the propensity for men to be violent towards their partners, the lack of monogamy underneath the pretence of it and various other features. It may comment on various women’s liberation movements:
“For several hundred years, women have been demanding equality of treatment in the world, including access to education, employment, wealth and representation. The movements are collectively known as ‘feminism’ and several waves of it can be identified. Unfortunately, the wins of certain waves are not always sustained and there are few areas where any kind of equality has been achieved. One of these, in some parts of the world, is education, but while women are far more likely than men to get the highest levels of qualification, they unfortunately still are paid less than men”.
Finally, the report would consider current sexual politics:
“One contemporary issue noted by researchers has been a fightback by women over sexual harassment. After the revelation that males in high places were sexually abusing women in large numbers, then pressuring their victims to keep quiet about it, a new movement of women has emerged. Known as #MeToo, and using social media via a relatively crude model of global internet, individuals have been telling their stories in public and naming the perpetrators. White interesting, it is hard to see that this movement will transform gender relationships”.
I am sure our alien researchers would have a lot more to say about the world, including the rape of our ecosystems, the killing of the oceans and land, the loss of habitat, poverty amongst plenty, inequality and mass overpopulation. I do not have time to report on this right now, however, as through the magic of Amazon my e-book of Fire and Fury has just dropped into my inbox, and I have some serious reading to do. Goodbye for now.
Dr Liz Gordon began her working life as a university lecturer at Massey and the Canterbury universities. She spent six years as an Alliance MP, before starting her own research company, Pukeko Research. Her work is in the fields of justice, law, education and sociology (poverty and inequality). She is the president of Pillars, a charity that works for the children of prisoners, a prison volunteer, and is on the board of several other organisations. Her mission is to see New Zealand freed from the shackles of neo-liberalism before she dies (hopefully well before!).
‘Ahem…!’
Surely, in these enlightened times, you mean SOME men and their toys, what ever that means.
And after working side by side with my mother and my Aunt while at constant loggerheads with my narcissistic and sadist father on a sheep station carrying, at it’s peak, 5000 sheep, 300 beef cattle, producing 500 acres of grain and thousands of bales of meadow hay annually to get them, and us, through harsh mid Canterbury winters for more than twenty years after I left school at 15, ( I know. Long sentence.) I think I’m qualified to state that women being paid less because they’re women should have those few real men left running over their useless politicians and misogynist colleagues with their own ‘toys’.
( I have none of these mythical ‘toys’ by the way? What ’toys’ do you mean? A jet Ski perhaps ? I’d love a jet ski! )
I do truly object to being lumped in with misogynists simply because I have a penis and testicles and since I have no intention to reorientate my gender I have to leap to my own defence.
That’d be like me assuming all women are like margaret thatcher, hilary clinton,paula bennett, judith collins, hekia parata, anne tolly, ruth richardson, jenny shipley, helen clark, and that list will continue to grow.
Your alien posits re trump:
“It could be argued that people who voted for him – mainly males with a disposition not to trust organised government – are getting from Mr Trump exactly what they voted for”.
Do you have proof of support for that supposition, aliens?
“… a tinpot dictator known as Kim Jong-un…”
So, the metaphorical aliens and trump agree on one thing at least.
This is what I think’s happening. At risk of being burned at the stake after being strangled by a bra strap.
The nuclear family, where the mother and father go to work once depositing the, in this case, boy -child into a care facility with strangers and snot eating lesser others, the shock of which can do odd things to the amygdala which in turn makes communication between the amygdala and the hippocampus erratic, to say the least. ( I dated a Dr of Psychiatry for awhile. She found me fascinating for a short period of time. When we talked, she took notes? What did that mean, do you think?)
Bingo ! A sociopathic misogynist is manufactured. Whilst mindful of being boy-centric for the sake of the argument, little boys must have loving mothers. No matter the poverty, hardship etc. Little boys must have positive female role models. Not a tireless, nonstop indoctrination of rugby, beer drinking, man-upping, high wankery. Then, we might have men in positions of power empowering women. Not abusing and/or exploiting them.
As for the alien opinion, that of humanity being vermin…? My rats in my ceilings would disagree. They do things because they’re rats. Some humans do vermin like things because # A It makes money = power and control and # B It’s evil fun. Vermin are not evil. They’re vermin. Some humans know this and must look on agog at the shameful behaviour of others.
But there is hope.
Some of us are at our most outraged when we know what’s happening. If we were not outraged, evil things might be being done that we knew nothing of until we realised to late, that we’re fucked.
Be comforted by the fact that all this vulgar, classless, stupidity is a passing phase. A brief sliver of history that we can hang our heads in shame about in 200 years time.
One last thing. Someone might find it interesting.
Without my mum, I’d not be here. Literally. She scorned society’s pressures and had her bastard son. She defended my little self with motherly ferocity and even flatted a few other kids for me during a lolly scramble once. She’s my hero. The only one, come to think of it.
They’d probably suggest we start with this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4970214/95-plastic-oceans-comes-just-TEN-rivers.html
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