Human nature - Politics

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During a recent conversation, a friend argued that if there were lots of other sentient beings in the universe, as is commonly supposed, surely they would have visited us. We can dismiss UFO sightings, which are common but useless in that they all stop short of being verifiable. So where are they? Why haven't all these supposedly advanced civilisations answered the radio signals we have been sending into space for years?

It's a fair question. The human mind has a bit of trouble grasping the concept of infinity, but the universe is supposed to be infinite, giving rise to the argument that, with all the possible combinations of environmental factors and all the planets zipping around all the suns out there, there is an infinite number of life forms.

Oh yeah? So why haven't the more developed ones dropped by for a cup of tea and a bit of intergalactic gossip?

The answer, another friend suggested, is that we aren't developed enough. Some of us like to see ourselves as a civilised, sophisticated and technologically advanced race, but in the eyes of a truly advanced and civilised species, we are primitives. Little better than apes, and that might be optimistic. Intergalactic insect status, probably.

Hell, we still fight wars!

Say no more. Passing space ships would take a quick look at Afghanistan and some of the seedier thought waves coming out of our houses of parliament, and make a mental note to come back in 10,000 years.

If you're still not convinced, here's some recent news items from Australia which would reinforce Earth folks' ranking as slightly evolved cockroaches.

Three students on a school camp took an iron bar and used it to beat a kangaroo to death.

A group of university students established a Facebook page to promote their beliefs, which they described as "pro-rape, anti-consent''.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said, "What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing ... ''.

Who cares what Abbott thinks the housewives of Australia need to understand? I'll tell you who doesn't care: intelligent beings from elsewhere. They've sent home a starwarp-memo:

Re Planet Earth, Spiral 7, Milky Way: Barbarians. Don't come back while A. Abbott is still around.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia, Human nature, Leadership, Politics

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Getting to the bottom of the graffiti problem

March 8th 2010 06:35

VYOOS EDITORIAL
Sometimes, the best decisions in law are innovative moments of colour splashed on grey areas of inefficacy.

The ideal judicial system is one which protects both the citizens of a community and the rights of those citizens. But the law can be a platform of social justice made of quicksand. It can never cover all eventualities, and if people try to make it do so, the law can be an ass.

An example surfaced in San Juan del Rio in Queretaro state, central Mexico, late last week, when police caught a 13-year-old boy spray-painting graffiti tags on municipal property. They took the boy to a municipal official whose job it was to deal with petty offences.

The official decided that, in this case, a lesson about vandalism and the sanctity of other people's property might be learned if he spray-painted the boy's buttocks.

So he did.

The San Juan del Rio mayor promptly fired the official, saying he should have played it by the book and informed the boy's parents, who would then be responsible for paying for the graffiti to be removed.

In today's carefully sanitised and correct world, the mayor was right. Informing the parents, and forcing them to pay for the damage, was the legally mandated and sensible thing to do. It is interesting, however, that this action would in no obvious way have given the boy a demonstration of why his behaviour was considered unacceptable.

To be fair, the official went too far. You can not pull down the pants of anyone, let alone a 13-year-old, and spray-paint their bum to make a point. But perhaps the point could have been made anecdotally — imagine how you would feel if I violated your property, to wit, your bottom, by taking this spray can and ...

If, next weekend, the 13-year-old boy decides after consideration that he is no longer inclined to spray-paint graffiti on municipal property, do you think we will have the mayor, who still has his job, to thank, or the official who no longer has his job?

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Mexico, Human nature, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Vyoos Editorial

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Living with intolerance

March 5th 2009 05:38

There can be little point in railing against racism. Pointing out that racism is a foolish prejudice born of ignorance is good, indeed important, but the degree to which some people get stirred is unproductive. They affect no-one except themselves, and they help foster the social polarisation which the Pauline Hansons of this world exploit.

Few people are completely tolerant. Devout Buddhists love and revere all living creatures. At the other end of the spectrum, Pauline Hanson, if she is honest, probably hates everyone who doesn't have bright orange hair, green eyes and a slightly confused stare.

The rest of us are somewhere in between.

I lived for 16 years in Hong Kong where I occasionally experienced prejudice against my Caucasianess. By far the worst racism in Hong Kong, however, is by the established Chinese, by which I mean those that moved there from the mainland a generation or more ago, against the Chinese who have moved there since the border controls were relaxed post-1997.

I have heard the newcomers labelled unsophisticated, dirty and hungry for our jobs.

Our jobs! Where have I heard that before?

There have been some intelligent posts on Orble on this subject recently, and there have been some intelligent comments, especially here on RubySoho's Thought Zone. Several people of non-Caucasian extraction have talked about racism and reverse racism (exclusivity among ethnic groups in a multi-cultural society).

Crucially, for me, in most cases these people displayed no anger. They were just stating the existence of this behaviour.

Now that's tolerance.

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