Riots in Cairo.
Violence in Libya. Chinese protests calling for war against Japan. Has the
world gone crazy? Can a video really inspire such social unrest? Should a
territorial dispute over a small island lead to calls for military action?
The world has not gone
crazy. It’s merely humans surrendering to fears and then whipped up by
dissidents and opportunists into frenzy. Let’s not be naïve. The violence in
the Middle East is not just the result of a stupid and insulting video. It’s
just the latest pinprick in a conflict between the Muslim world and Christian
world that has burned for hundreds of years. The Chinese protests over the
ownership of small Islands in the East China Sea are not just a reaction to
longstanding national land disputes, but also Sino fury focused on a nation that brutalized Chinese during World War Two.
So, what’s my point?
The same simmering conflicts, and many others that exist all over our little
planet, could come into play in the wake of First Contact with an extraterrestrial
civilization. That may be hard for folks to understand. We like to view
extraterrestrial contact as an event that would join humans together. And while
that may ultimately be the case, along the way there would likely be plenty of
conflict. That conflict would not come from humans freaked-out over
extraterrestrial contact. Many surveys have shown that individually humans
would probably be calm in the wake of extraterrestrial First Contact.
However, this isn’t
just a question of individual reactions. Those same opportunists and dissidents
whipping up frenzy today could decide that there is an opportunity to make a
point and gain advantage in the wake of First Contact. Media reports say that
the Chinese government may be fueling the fire in the Japan protests. In Libya,
there are suggestions that political dissidents may have used the video as an
excuse to stage a planned attack on the American Embassy.
This is the reality of
life on planet Earth. Depending on the nature of First Contact, social unrest
could be a big issue in the weeks and months following such an event. The
nature of contact, of course, has a lot to do with it. If scientists discover
an engineered signal and take years to figure out what that signal means and
where it came from, it seems unlikely that there would be immediate unrest. In
the wake of Direct First Contact, meaning we meet up with extraterrestrials in
our solar system and have a high-information exchange, it seems more likely
that we would have human relations problems here on Earth.
That said, there is a window
of opportunity in such a dramatic event. Direct First Contact might lead to a
period of stasis, brought on by humans individually and collectively being
stunned by the news. People would naturally want to watch and learn at first. Wall
to wall media coverage would focus on the discovery. It could take days, weeks
or even months for the old conflicts to come to the surface After First
Contact. But as people begin to consider how they want to take advantage of the
First Contact situation and old rivalries are inflamed by the possibilities
raised by First Contact, it seems likely that human hostilities would come to
the forefront once again. An active effort to join humans during the stunned period
could help to alleviate those hostilities, especially if it is possible to show
how out-dated such long-rooted hostilities are After First Contact.
First Contact could
provide a new perspective for humans, hopefully rendering many old conflicts moot.
Why would you bother fighting over an island in the East China Sea when the
future lies out in the universe? The presence of extraterrestrials should show
humans that religious differences are really a matter of tiny degrees of
difference, not a great gulf, as compared to differences with
extraterrestrials.
The end result
will depend on individual humans. If we let the dissidents and opportunists
whip us into frenzy there may be conflict and social unrest. We are the keepers
of our own world. If we choose to ignore those angry voices and look for a
wider perspective, we may have a calm and yet exciting future. It will be our
choice.
What do you think? Post
on the Alien First Contact Facebook page.
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