Call Me Klaatu, why? Kung Fu and Moby Dick
Call me Klaatu.
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No, not the character played by Keanu Reeves in the 20xx remake of the classic 1951 black & white science fiction movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." The one played by Michael Rennie in the original.
They changed the plot considerably for the remake but the elements of original were crystal clear. Klaatu, a visitor from another planet, arrives in a flying saucer and lands in Washington D. C. (well, it *is* a movie made in the USA). The President sends a top aide to meet with Klaatu, who says he wants to present the reason for his journey to an audience of all the heads of state on Earth. The President sends cables (remember it was 1951) to the heads of state but receives childish refusals. No location is satisfactory to all the parties. They don't like or trust each other.
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An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. -IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043456/
Storyline
An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) land their spacecraft on Cold War-era Earth just after the end of World War II. They bring an important message to the planet that Klaatu wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult, so, after learning something about the natives, Klaatu decides on an alternative approach. Written by Bruce Janson <bruce@cs.su.oz.au>
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wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still
Klaatu reveals to the President's secretary, Harley (Frank Conroy), that he bears a message so momentous and urgent that it can and must be revealed to all the world's leaders simultaneously. However Harley tells him that it would be impossible to get the squabbling world leaders to agree to meet. Klaatu wants to get to know the ordinary people. Harley forbids it and leaves Klaatu locked up under guard
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Harley reports his results to an increduous Klaatu.
Mr. Harley: Your impatience is quite understandable.
Klaatu: I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.
Mr. Harley: I'm afraid my people haven't. I'm very sorry... I wish it were otherwise.
And that's why I ask that you call me Klaatu. Not that I'm visiting from another planet, but I never cease to find bottomless depths of stupidity among human beings.
Take, for instance, somebody who approaches me and asks, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?" So long as those people don't persist, I'll just go about my business, perhaps being glad they've found something about which to be happy. One person's lies, as you'll hear me say more than once, are as good as another's. When those people persist, I'm polite but firm in asking them to go away. They usually do.
There are other people I call "aggressively stupid." No matter what the subject, they're completely certain their position is correct. Sometimes they've progressed from having an opinion to having a belief, and then to having a fervent faith. The more fervent, and the more detached from an objective reality, the scarier I find it. It's everywhere.
I want to talk about religion, medical ethics, suicide, love, and the meaning of life.
Did children born long before me have the same thoughts as they lay in bed at night?
I would wonder why the space aliens had left me here, on this planet, with these people who pretended to be my parents. The two people were stupid and cruel. The other humans were, too.
Another child might have wondered, "What did I do to deserve this? Why am I being punished?" I didn't. I merely resented the injustice of what was being done to me.
The notion of "space aliens" might not have been in the minds of children a long time ago, but I was a child of the science fiction era. Born at the end of 1949, I was there when sci fi movies such as "TDTESS" were born.
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I've been thinking every human should need a justification, on a daily basis, for staying alive. I think once you have had progeny to carry forward your unique genetic contribution into the future, living is the wrong thing to do. Of course, should you decide, as I have, not to have children, then your contribution will be lost anyway. Nature has no further use for you.
Whether you have had children or decided not to, the question becomes one of continuing to live. Our society (an outgrowth of our religions) dictates that we attempt to live forever. The kindness we show a very sick pet is denied to humans. Assisted suicide is viewed as murder in nearly the entire United States. We routinely perform very expensive surgeries on people in their last 6 months of life, wasting unimaginable sums of money and denying (for instance) organs to people who could use them better and longer, without appreciably extending the duration of the patient's life or improving its quality. We are driving the country bankrupt and not improving the quality of life of our citizens. Hospitals are just now beginning to consider sending the terminally ill home to die in the comfort of their own homes.
Importantly, once people have met nature's demands, every day they live is a day consuming resources the planet does not have available to share. Man really *is* a parasite on the planet. I'm not a radical environmentalist. I don't think about ecology all the time. But once you look at man's existence from my point of view, you get very quickly to the notion that one should (at least) affirm a reason for living every day. Without such a reason, the State should make available an "Ethical Suicide Parlor" (see Vonnegut or other authors for the description), wherein a person may make a painless and pleasurable exit (consider, too, the movie "Soylent Green").
Society should teach not just that dying is a part of life, but that life is a very brief stop along the way to eternal nothingness. We all arrive at the same destination. There is no reason to fear it. On the contrary, we should embrace it.
I could get into my view of many religions' "Heaven," "Paradise," "Reincarnation," or other "Afterlife" promises, but I have written it elsewhere. Let me only say that one person's lies, inculcated into them by authority figures before they could think for themselves, are as good as another's. Geography and one's "tribe" don't make any "God" more valid than another. The notion that "Thou shalt put no other God before me" strikes me as total bullshit. OK, I'll go on a bit longer.
So far as I know, each religion has a "don't kill another human" rule (killing animals, however, is OK -- God has give us "dominion over the Earth," right?, and haven't we done a fine job of it?). And yet we have wars -- between nation states and religions. How can we justify violating the "don't kill" rule? This one is clever ... by saying the other people are unbelievers, infidels, heathens, etc. we put them in a lower class than humans, and therefore OK to kill. And we always throw in that "God is on our side." I only wonder that we don't eat fallen enemies on the field of battle.
And the religions preach about "pie in the sky" after death to keep the people meek during their lives. Why? Because religions and nation states are really the same thing, and nobody in power wants to see the sheep stage a revolt or revolution. Am I a conspiracy nut? Perhaps. Or perhaps I'm simply right.
As I said, I've written more before, so let's get back on track.
I want to address what might be valid reasons to continue living. Now I don't propose that people voluntarily or involuntarily be brought before "Death Panels" (a better use of the term than in describing President Obama's healthcare program), I just want them to spend a few minutes at night "Counting Their Blessings" (I'll explain later). If they couldn't find any, or a sufficient number to want to stay alive, they merely need to look in the mirror the next morning and decide if that is the right day to die. If they are interested in continued living, all they need do is hear themselves say something that makes sense.
Perhaps I should have warned you about the following earlier. I'm going to illustrate my position using lyrics from songs and lines from movies that made a big impression on me when I was very young. A picture *may* be worth a thousand words, but my topic today needs words, not pictures.
Time for You to Leave
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kung fu
1972-1975
In the 1970s, there was a TV show named "Kung Fu" that opened with the same flashback sequence each week. A Chinese temple has taken in a young orphaned boy whom they will teach to be a monk. They will teach him religion and martial arts. When the boy arrives, the leader of the temple shows him a sort of graduation test he must pass someday. He must take a pebble from his Master's open hand before his Master can close his fingers around it. "When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave." You see a sequence of boy growing and learning until the boy, who has grown to be a man, passes the test. His Master says, "Time for you to leave."
The title comes from the 1970s television show "Kung Fu." It was repeated in the opening of each week's show. The opening starts with a flashback to a Chinese temple. They have taken in a young orphaned boy whom they will teach to be a monk, an expert both in religion and martial arts. When the boy arrives, the leader of the temple shows him a sort of graduation test he must pass someday. He must take a pebble from his Master's open hand before his Master can close his fingers around it. "When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave." After several years, the boy passes the test. His Master says, "Time for you to leave."
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If you’re not familiar with this little pop culture gem, then pretend I made this up. Really, it’s okay. I’m that clever so it’s believable.
A young Kwai Chang Caine is a pupil of Master Kan at the Shaolin Temple. He is told that when he snatches the pebble from the Master’s hand, then he has learned all he can in the temple. To continue his lessons, he must set out on his own and let the world be his teacher.
I could bore you with musings about Master Kan’s wisdom, and Caine’s youthful bravado, but the bottom line is Kan’s a bad mother[bleep] and Caine isn’t good enough to take the pebble. Yet.
Again, if you’re familiar with this, you know what eventually happened. If you’re not, continue thinking that I came up with this great metaphor about writing advice on my own.
Caine trains, becomes wise in the ways of Kung Fu, and eventually snatches the pebble from Kan’s hand.
It’s time to step out on his own.
If you’re serious about your writing career, eventually, you’ll have to as well.
What is the meaning of life? What is God's plan for me on Earth? Will I go to Heaven?
People believe there are no answers to those questions, but we can answer them easily. Here is the fundamental problem. The underlying assumptions we have about life are wrong.
There is no meaning to human life.
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There is, however, a purpose. Actually, it's twofold and the same as for any living thing: Reproduce and live forever. Why? Reproduce to pass along to future generations your genetic uniqueness. Once we have done that, Nature has no further use for us. Live forever (or die trying) so predators can kill and eat you to stay alive themselves. The problem is that humans lack predators. Instead of having the decency to become a meal for another animal we simply continue to live for a very long time, consuming the Earth's few precious resources. Man truly is a parasite on the planet.
God's plan for you? Seriously?
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If you believe in God, any God, you were probably inculcated with a set of lies by authority figures before you could make up your own mind. Your parents, other relatives, teachers, community members, preachers pushed onto you the same things they believe. Understand this: they were repeating words written by a man in a book. If everybody around you believed the book Moby Dick were real, you'd be worshiping a white whale. One person's lies are as good as the next. Kill infidels (heretics, non-believers)? You must be joking. The accident of where somebody is born does not make them any more or less close to "God." Instead of being indoctrinated in your youth, it could be that you were "Born Again." That means you needed the comfort of easy answers in your life and so you sought to find them in religion. Religion allows you to fall back on platitudes to explain every calamity. "It's God's will" covers many situations.
Heaven, Paradise, Reincarnation, any afterlife at all.
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This is the height of conceit. Only humans, of all "God's creatures," don't die when their bodies do. Their "immortal souls" go on to the next level. What's the deal here? People have either massive egos or massive fear or both. They can't believe that this one life is all they get. As far back as we have recorded history, some have survived NDEs (Near Death Experiences), in which they saw a white light, a stairway to heaven, angels, their dead relatives, or (recently) a view of themselves looking downward from the ceiling of the hospital emergency room in which they nearly died. What they saw was a simple result of lack of oxygen to the brain. You want to see heaven? Here, let me strangle you.
The Truth About Moby Dick
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You can't help being wrong about everything. Nobody told you the truth about Moby Dick.
You see, Moby Dick is God. Not *a* God. The one true God.
If you don't know, "Moby Dick" was the title of an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. It's a long novel. Even the plot description on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick) is 1,000 words long. Later it was made into a 1956 movie starring Gregory Peck. The IMDb movie summary says: "This classic story by Herman Melville revolves around Captain Ahab and his obsession with a huge whale, Moby Dick. The whale caused the loss of Ahab's leg years before, leaving Ahab to stomp the boards of his ship on a peg leg. Ahab is so crazed by his desire to kill the whale, that he is prepared to sacrifice everything, including his life, the lives of his crew members, and even his ship to find and destroy his nemesis, Moby Dick."
I entered the exact phrase "Mpby Dick is God" into Google and got 980 hits. I'm not going to attempt to describe the book. What I'll do first is focus on a few key aspects.
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