“Man is something that shall be overcome.Man is a rope,tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss.What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.”-- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra --Nothing scientific can be racist and nothing racist can be scientific. (c)2000-2017 CM PRESS.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
CM PRESS # 317
RETURN TO REASON GUY HAS SEEN TOO MANY CHEAP SCIFI FLICKS
Oh geez. Return to Reason's own Byron de Arakal over at the Daily Pilot has a column in today's paper in which he inadvertently gives us the local version of the plot device used by countless science fiction writers in B movies and TV shows when they want to show that we humans have it all over the bug eyed monsters, assorted robots and various androids.
It's because we have, in Byron's words, "compassion and love and humanity."
In such movies and TV shows, including Star Trek, you'll usually see the main human protagonist--think, Captain Kirk--win because of his human qualities.
And, in the movie or TV show, there's usually something like the following that is either explicitly stated or implied (often depending on the age of the target audience).
"Take us to your leader. We want to learn about compassion and love and humanity. We do not understand these things and even though our science is hundreds of thousands of years ahead of yours and even though it has only taken us a short time to travel light years to your planet in machines that you can't even imagine, we do not have compassion and love and humanity on our home world and want to learn from you."
Yup, those bug eyed monsters could travel here to earth from light years away in some cases and thus have, demonstrably, more of a handle on science and technology than we do, but they don't have COMPASSION or LOVE or, or, or HUMANITY, BY DAMN! Just a buncha emotionless Spock wannabes!
Why, they're not even human! And they're ugly! Let's go kill 'em! Let's show them our compassion and our love and our humanity. Let's go squish them like the bugs they look like! We don't need none of them kind around these parts! Pick up your pitchforks and let's go get 'em. We'll teach them to be ugly. We're gonna kick some alien butt, er, which end is their butt?
Of course, Byron isn't discussing space aliens. He's actually referring to some of my essays in which I take a scientific approach to this thing we call life.
Byron figures I take too simplistic a view of humans and he tells us that we humans are above the rest of life, by golly, because, well, in Byron's more complex view of things, we have compassion, love and humanity.
Yup. We're just below the angels. Laws of nature don't apply to us as they do to all other living things, apparently.
In truth, that sounds a little like 14th Century Catholic doctrine. Perhaps, if Byron's views are, indeed, informed by centuries old Catholic doctrine (and I don't know for a fact that they are), he might wish to go back and read what famous Catholic monk Gregor Mendel had to say about some of the same things I write about.
Byron also figures the folks over at the Pilot have a fixation with me.
Let me be very clear that there is no truth to the rumor that the paper is going to change it's name to the DAILY MILLARD.
Anyway, here's part of Byron's latest column. And, here's the LINK to the full column.
(snip)
I’m thinking it’s time, too, for a lot of folks in this city and at the helm of the Daily Pilot to put away their Martin Millard fixation.
Millard is the iconoclastic chap whose numerous essays on genes and race, and the order of nature are used by his detractors to paint the man as the combined reincarnation of Daddy Jim Crow and Hitler.
But that’s too easy and a bit intellectually lazy.
From where I sit, Millard’s essays are overly simplistic and easy to disagree with.
They ignore the unique human qualities that elevate us above the vermin and the insects; things like compassion, love and humanity.
These are the governors who — on most days — bridle us from destroying one another and which temper nature’s otherwise violent and compassionless machinery.
Millard is the most persistent and vocal mouthpiece of Costa Mesa’s Improvement movement.
But he is not the Improvement movement itself. Fixating on what Millard may or may not be doesn’t help the city improve. Or its people get along any better.
Let Marty go.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
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