Humanity... and who are we?
We humans are curious animals. Just imagine if some superior alien had gathered up a sample of life on earth to study under a microscope.
When they came to investigating humanity, their observations would surely leave them fascinated and perplexed.
They would see a creature that has used an elevated ability to rationalise to establish pride of place at the top of the planet’s food chain.
They would also see this same creature having an inbuilt quirky intent on both self-survival and self-destruction.
They might also see plenty of bizarre rationalisation about what captures this animal’s attention and therefore what it considers important.
We perhaps saw and heard an example of this curiosity unfold in news headlines earlier this week.
As bombs continued to fall in a European fight involving a nuclear-armed aggressor, affecting everything from global peace to market security; as governments pondered responses to potential devastation of climate change and so on, our attention turned to... trying to understand circumstances surrounding an on-stage incident at the Academy Awards.
Yes, that ‘slap’ from Will Smith to fellow movie star Chris Rock, real or staged and based on a ‘disrespectful comment’, nestled in neatly among the most ‘important’ news from around the world. Let’s go back to the superior alien for a moment and try to comprehend what they would have thought if they happened to be trying to piece together human sensibilities when the Smith-rock news broke.
Would their reaction be confusion, contempt or hilarity in their assessment of a supposedly intelligent, rational creature? Would we be worth saving or discarding?
Dear oh dear! To use a favourite good old expression, we all ‘need a good hard look at ourselves’.
Sure we know Smith, Rock and all the stars of stage and screen influence our everyday lives. And yes, they are often role models.
But who really cares about some ‘spat’ between a couple of entertainers?
But then again... was it contrived or was it real? Groan! Some of us can’t help but feel rather shallow at times.