The Eve of Destruction
Who needs aliens when we’re doing a great job ourselves
About 65 million years ago a massive meteor hit the earth and put paid to the claim the dinosaurs were laying for global domination. I’m not sure if they had nukes, genocide, oppression, segregation, trade restrictions or martial law in their plans as they worked together to rule the planet, but it was all for nothing anyway.
Imagine looking from the outside, down at the third rock from the sun. Whether it’s the aliens or some all powerful being observing us, what they’re currently seeing would be beyond even the wildest things in the imaginations George Lucas, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov and the like. Except, what were doing to ourselves is not science fiction. We’ve dug holes, cut down trees, stripped land and sprayed chemicals to levels that have raised the temperature by about a degree over the last century. That’s Bad. Really bad. We’ve clearly got enough alternatives to stem the damage, but the actions required would halt the progress and domination of the current superpowers, so we’re at an impasse.
Those with their bums on the thrones of world power seems be able to always find some ‘expert’ to back up their current policies, and there’s enough gullible people to believe them and vote them in. Or, in the cases of the dictators, they don’t even care what the people think. Everyone from the global climate specialists through to young Greta have warned not only that’s it’s getting pretty late to do something, but that it may already be too late. That’s ok, as long as I’ve got my gun by my side, petrol in my tank and my hit of fast food, it’ll all be good. “All G” as the kids say.
Whilst on the whole we’ve done a pretty excellent job down here, many around the world just couldn’t look past their own noses to see the urgency in action on the pandemic. With nigh on 400 000 deaths globally (it’s 2020 people, are we crazy? It’s not the days of the black plague, or the Spanish Flu, where little could be done) it’s pretty clear that, for many, the notions of common sense and greater good are poor cousins to throwing others under the bus, taking care of yourself and (for the second time in this column) making sure you mislead the gullible ones so they’ll vote for you next time around.
Now, much of the world is fighting back as the ever-present lack of equality sits front and centre again. Whilst the aliens and the man upstairs must have shaken their heads at what we’re doing to our planet, their jaws must be on the floor as they look at how its inhabitants treat each other. Whilst the focus is on the single incident in Minneapolis, that’s just the spark that has re-lit the flames of racism, gender bias, oppression and division again. I’m trying to imagine what would happen in our country if one of our leaders behaved like the leader of Russia, North Korea or America (and maybe even England) … they’d be out on their ear one way or the other.
When Barry McGuire’s song ‘Eve of Destruction’ was released in 1964, the powers that be tried to ban it claiming it was an ‘aid to the enemy’. Here’s what he said way back then … “Handfuls of Senators don't pass legislation, And marches alone can't bring integration, When human respect is disintegratin', This whole crazy world is just too frustratin', And you tell me over and over and over again my friend, Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.”. That was 1964 – it appears we’ve learnt nothing. The aliens won’t have to do anything to take the keys, they can just sit back and watch, we’re doing a great job to bring about the end without any help.