Humans on Report

One of the best things about films, or any kind of art, is that they let us step back and see things from a distance, sometimes even from space. It’s like imagining an intelligent being from another planet, or even another galaxy, watching us. Art helps us zoom out, look at ourselves from the outside, and perhaps understand more than we ever could up close. Now, let me do a thought experiment and write a report from an alien’s perspective (a perspective that I believe I have gained from films or art in general). So, if an alien had to write a short report about us, how would they do it?

Humans on Report

Regardless of its purpose or result: good or bad, solidaritarian or discriminatory, inclusive or exclusive, egalitarian or hierarchical, fair or unjust,

Regardless of its kind: their own or not, living or nonliving, concrete or abstract, worldly or otherworldly,

In every situation, on every scale, and in every period,

They have always found or created an “other”,

And they have wanted to defeat them or not to be defeated by them,

And they never learned to do it without causing harm, even if they tried.