Imagine

By Al Horn

There are a lot of good things to be said about this country. There are many good things to be said for the world as a whole. At this point, I wish to affirm my patriotism to this country. Having said that, I'm not so sure about our leaders and the decisions that they sometimes force on other people of the world in our names. I do not believe that patriotism and faith in our leaders is mutually inclusive. Too many of our leaders arrive in office through the will of the lobbyist, not through the will of the people.

I like to write Science Fiction. Sometimes that is a means of predicting the future. How our technology or cultures will evolve over time. Sometimes it involves our world coming into contact with beings from far off planets and how we handle the contact. As such, I would like you, the reader to imagine how other countries might see us by trying to imagine an encounter with a superior culture coming to our planet and singling out the United States for reforms that they feel would be in our best interest.

For the sake of argument we will describe them as humanoid in appearance. That way we can identify with them to some degree. Their technology is more advanced than ours is but only by a generation or two. This would include their weaponry. The main problem would be their culture and how they perceive it to be superior to our society, and the need to bring us quickly in line with their way of thinking.

Day one: an armada of huge ships enters earth orbit and breaks into all communications. They announce who they are and how they will become a blessing to our people. They tell us they will wipe out the majority of diseases and provide us with tools to make us more productive and efficient while doing as little harm to our environment as possible.

On the surface, that would be meet by shouts of joy. An end to disease and possibly hunger? Cheap energy? Reversing the harm we have done to our planet? That would be great! Wait a second. What's the catch?

They tell us that changes in our culture as we know it would have to take place. They would start with the most powerful country in the world and let the changes spread from there. The changes would be minor from their point of view but necessary just the same.

Day two: Henceforth, all consumption of animal flesh and alcohol in any form is forbidden. Add to that the ban of any and all tobacco products. Lastly, personal transportation using petroleum products will no longer be allowed. These rules are not negotiable and a team of 'technicians' will be landing with security forces at the end of the week to begin phasing said bans into our culture over the next two years.

I'm sure that a minority of people would say "hey, no problem". Outside of that group, everybody would have a problem with some part of it. The fact of the matter is that everybody could live under those conditions if they had to. The problem is that we don't like anybody to tell us what we can and can't do. Our constitution says that these things are a part of our freedoms. Nobody is going to tell us what to do even if it is our 'best interest'.

The truth of the matter is that I don't smoke and could live without alcohol. For a better world, I could even give up meat. Everything in life has a price to be paid. If these people could come up with cheap reliable public transportation, I could probably give up my truck. In the interest of providing a better world for my children and their children, I could make these sacrifices. I'm sure that if you really thought about it, there would be a lot of people willing to give up all of the items on the list. The problem is that too many people would be willing to give up most of the list but not all of it. They would represent the majority. They would resist and expect our elected officials to resist as well.

The aliens would be seen as oppressors and we would become freedom fighters in the name of saving our culture. We would use low-tech weapons and all the subterfuge at our command. Our society would become divided by those who see the changes as acceptable and those who are willing to die to preserve the status quo. It's conceivable that we would be thrown into civil strive that would make the Civil War look civil.

In the end, we might toss them off of our planet or, after dozens of years of conflict, be molded into a new image. Changes would take place regardless. Life as we Americans know it would cease to exist. The new nation, forged in the flames of change, would be a better one. Wouldn't it. In another thirty years we will be able to ask that of the people of Iraq.

I love my country and our present way of life. Does that mean everybody else should too? Before some of you tell me that old adage of 'America, love it or leave it', imagine if the British had said that of the colonies two hundred and thirty years ago.