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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part II

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:00:16

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nation-state

Is this too bold a statement: the nation-state is the most detrimental thing that humanity
has ever invented? Each time aliens visit the Earth I am positive that many things
convince them that there is no intelligent life on this planet. Remembering our Darwin, we
know that it is not unusual for members of one species to kill those of another or even to
kill among their own kind. In the case of inter-species conflict, killing relates to gathering
food. Apparently since the human species has stomped the earth, we have destroyed more
species that even exist today, and what we kill off or merely endanger has almost nothing
to do with our sustenance needs. It has to do with self-aggrandizement (industrialization,
city-building, excessive commercial cropping and animal farming) and petty rivalries (by
the way, the exact two features that characterize life in a university faculty). Conflict
within a species concerns matters of territory and the setting of hierarchy to ensure
reproduction of the fittest. But human history has been characterized by a different type
of conflict, especially that involving race or religion or self-aggrandizement (a concept
described by words such as hegemony or imperialism or being a world leader). I wonder
if an alien of even moderate intelligence, a rational being, in stumbling upon the Earth
could even conceive of such an orb where one people try to annihilate another, indeed
enjoy the very process of annihilation, because of genetic differences or a disagreement
over belief systems. Things that by their very nature cannot be proved superior one way
or the other. It is like imagining lions trying to wipe out tigers or cheetahs or leopards, or
the latter ganging up to take out the former, just because they look dissimilar or behave
differently. I am sure that an alien of even marginal intelligence would recognize ...