"We scared the alien off!" This reminded me of something that just happened with me. I feed wild birds, and leave the peanuts uncovered so the mice can have some as well. The mice place items on the peanuts to hide them from other animals.
They spend so long working on this that I felt bad about messing up their work every morning, so now I leave those peanuts alone and feed the birds from somewhere else. My brother pointed out that, from the mouse point of view, they have won! The fact that I no longer disturb their peanuts proves that they have hidden the peanuts from me and I can no longer find them!
This is typical behaviour when dealing with more advanced beings. In the Kirby story, humans think the alien must be an enemy., We think we scared him off. But really we were too stupid to see that advanced beings don't steal our peanuts. If they wanted to kill us we would already be dead! If they come to spend time with us it is must be for peaceful reasons.
Our love of violence is as old as the hills. It's how we think. For example, just look at Facebook: every problem must be seen in terms of an enemy. The liberals are stupid! The Republicans are evil! The religious are idiots! The one percent are out to suck us dry! In reality, most problems are systemic, not personal. All humans face similar problems, and therefore we can best face them together. But humans, like mice, are hardwired to see enemies everywhere.
They spend so long working on this that I felt bad about messing up their work every morning, so now I leave those peanuts alone and feed the birds from somewhere else. My brother pointed out that, from the mouse point of view, they have won! The fact that I no longer disturb their peanuts proves that they have hidden the peanuts from me and I can no longer find them!
This is typical behaviour when dealing with more advanced beings. In the Kirby story, humans think the alien must be an enemy., We think we scared him off. But really we were too stupid to see that advanced beings don't steal our peanuts. If they wanted to kill us we would already be dead! If they come to spend time with us it is must be for peaceful reasons.
Our love of violence is as old as the hills. It's how we think. For example, just look at Facebook: every problem must be seen in terms of an enemy. The liberals are stupid! The Republicans are evil! The religious are idiots! The one percent are out to suck us dry! In reality, most problems are systemic, not personal. All humans face similar problems, and therefore we can best face them together. But humans, like mice, are hardwired to see enemies everywhere.
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