By now, most people have heard the musings of the former head of Israel’s Defense Ministry’s space directorate that there is a galactic federation and humans are not welcome.
Additionally, America’s belligerent, Tang-skinned leader knows about it.
It’s a lurid detail that was disclosed by Haim Eshed to Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
My first response, admittedly, was one of good laughter. Yes, I found it amusing for two reasons: 1. The skeptic in me was rising to the surface like Old Faithful and 2. It underscores how immature a species we are.
We haven’t gone 10 years without committing atrocities like genocide. Rohingya and Darfur are currently active genocides, and well, let’s not get started on Captain Tang, a man who finds it necessary to separate children from their parents and place them in cages.
The 45th has decided to launch Space Force whose members will be called guardians. And one can’t help but laugh like Drax. Thankfully he will be trotted out of the White House later this month, but not without another toddler tantrum.
We are a deeply flawed species that refuses to respect the environment; refuses to respect each other. We hide behind the shield of religion and cast stones, even though most of those religions have a golden rule: Do onto others …
And if we can’t be nice to each other, well hell, how are we going to be nice to other sentient beings that have probably been around much longer than us?
We are still the combative teenagers in a galaxy that probably has no time for colonialism, flat earthers and the birds-are-drones crowd. This is where an Avatar reference would be nice, but that’s low hanging fruit.
No, we need to look at our history of inaction. Our inability to feel empathy. The current coronavirus pandemic, which is more a result of climate change than some guy eating bush-meat, has exposed our species’ glaring inadequacies, ignorance of one another.
We blindly elect inexperienced populists into positions of high power and wonder how the most vital parts of our lives get harder: being able to pay for shelter, clothing and food.
I could go into great detail about the woes of our society right from systemic racism to growing class divide and to some people’s inability to grasp basic science.
But I won’t.
Instead, I will nod my head in agreeance that even if there is a “galactic federation” we are obviously not logical enough to handle the responsibility.
Until we clean up our own acts, shed the excess stupidity, we will be forever excluded from the most exclusive club in the galaxy.
Those of us who try to set an example can use the actions and line from Peter Quill when referring to the aforementioned silly gits, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know how this machine works.”