packrat2's Journal: sf for dummies

âoeThe aliens? They aren't interested in us. At all. Never have been.â

    âoeLook, it's simple enough. Most people don't work. Well, unless they
    have to. How many people do you know have projects, or even useful
    activities? Most don't want a lifesaver, a recorder-breaker or
    development-help around them. A cop-jock, priest or judge with you,
    always? With the naked ape, usually nothing but money, fun and
    control gets selected; and this monkey really wanted popular types. The
    aliens, when they came, put some cameras up and simply closed the whole
    thing down two weeks later.â

    âoeWhy? Successful intelligence here is predatory, and that's kind of
    messy to start with. Sucessful urbanization is a clean water supply and
    things start getting iffy right there. Is your home-village watered yet?
    Regularly? Successful civilization is a realized citizenry, even if it
    has to come up thru a system that usually selects for the company of
    pathological liars, sociopaths and psychotic war-lords.â

    âoeThat doesn't happen here. Bullshit. Can't get thru the day without it.
    Getting it licked comes first, then maybe anything else. 'Game on!' is
    the rule, not the exception and winning is the only thing.

    âoeThe consensus among space-faring types was there's no real hope.
    Females haven't even learned to talk yet and they make up 51% of the
    population. As a matter of fact, the more social you were, the bigger
    chance there was of home being a ghetto of one type or another.â

    âoeSee, there's a self-destruct built in the human condition. There's just
    'way too many people willing to use gangs and psychotic hate-campaigns
    to score. Because they work, naturally. Different is strange, and
    probably dangerous.The definition of a winner is someone who can make
    moves and score, right?â Have something bleed, giggle or ring the
    cash-register for you?â

    âoeGreed, vanity, control. Resources, power, fame. Ask a cop and it's sex,
    vengeance and money. The beast is not very complicated hereabouts. Or
    even very likely to keep the water running. 'Lie, cheat, steal, kill'
    makes for a interesting slum and that's about it.

    âoeSelf-indulgence plus politics does not equal work. So the human
    condition is the problem, not the answer. Got it yet? Oh, and politics
    is usually the handest slum of roving psychotics, pointed in the right
    direction.â

    âoeJustice is peacekeeping, or giving the strong what they want. Education,
    like religion, is whatever propaganda that serves the elite. Medicene
    gets turned into a money-maker.â

    âoeIt's simple enough. There was no money in playing with math, so most
    people didn't do that. Simple enough, right? And the locals get dumped
    for stealing too many banana-breaks from each other.â