Dude, you watch way too much Trek.
In this article, book hawking pshychologist Albert Harrison talks of galactic federations and happy democratic aliens. This is just too much fun:
If psychologist Albert Harrison is correct, ETs might feel very much at home with the notion of going to the ballot box. Or at least they would be familiar with the process of having input into the control of their lives, even if it doesn’t take the form of presidential elections. According to Harrison, a Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis, if we detect a signal from advanced extraterrestrials, there’s a good chance that the basic principles of democracy play a role in their society.
“When we intercept a transmission from an ancient society,” Harrison argues, “that society is likely to have achieved its great age not through an autocratic, belligerent government, but through a democratic government whose emphasis on bargaining, negotiation, and peaceful solutions to internal problems are brought to bear in dealing with other democracies.” In Harrison’s view it’s possible that “democracy involves a set of functional principles that will work for other intelligent species in other places and at other times.”
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Autocratic governments on Earth face an uphill battle, Harrison says, and the same challenges may limit the life expectancies of fascist regimes around distant stars. For example, autocracies tend to ignore the desires of their citizens. The resulting disconnect between leader and followers can become increasingly extreme, resulting in discontent of the masses. By contrast, democratic processes incorporate input from a wide range of individuals, yielding a more responsive and thus stable form of government. Harrison suggests that this lesson would not be lost on extraterrestrials. “The greater the number of democracies in a galaxy,” he says, “the greater the zone of galactic peace.”
Furthermore, he argues that if a federation of extraterrestrial civilizations exists, as some astronomers have suggested, its policy toward newly emerging civilizations such as ours might be guided by the values of democracy. “Members of the ‘Galactic Club,’” says Harrison, “should do everything they can to promote the evolution of stable democracies, because, by so doing, they increase their zone of peace.”
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However slight the chance, what if extraterrestrials really are as malevolent as Hollywood often portrays them? Would we be opening ourselves up to interstellar war if we respond to a signal? In all likelihood, Harrison says, “Our response to their signal will not be a beacon encouraging them to exterminate us.” Hostility at interstellar distances, he maintains, is hard to imagine: “The immense distances that separate stars and galaxies make hostile action unlikely. Immense distance also interferes with the trade of material goods and services, but it leaves open the possibility of trading information.”
How can this guy talk about this stuff with a straight face and get paid for it? I mean, on some level it is interesting to think about this kind of thing, but this guy talks like he is stating fact. It seems both presumptuous and like a bit of “rah-rah for western democracy” propaganda to me. How could anyone seriously claim to know the political culture of a society that evolved under totally alien environmental pressures? For all we know the entire universe could be full pinko-commie liberal space bastards, big mean bugs, or damn dirty apes.
LMAO!! oh my! whew! that was too funny!!
thanks for the laugh!!
Comment by Lilly | 8/22/2002