Sunday, April 22, 2012

Worlds In Collision (Sort Of)


This piece is an extrapolation of the possible consequences of  something called 'The Space Settlement Prize Act' which would in effect, grant rights to Billionaires, enabling them to buy property on other planets and the moon... and despite the title, at no times in this post (other than now) do I ever mention the name of Immanuel Velikovsky

The only problem is, that in order to purchase something, there needs to be an owner willing to sell. So if we assume here that the Billionaires are the buyers, then who are the sellers? Is this some kind of a roundabout admittance of the existence of extraterrestrial life?  I doubt it, but the undercurrent is based on the very presumptuous premise that unowned lands can be bought and sold. 

One could propose that the U.N. establish a governing body and treasury fund to become 'the seller' on behalf of all extra-terrestrial planetary bodies, lands, and resources. That might work marginally better than giving the money directly to the governments of Austria, Australia or to tribal elders in la République Gabonaise.

Unfortunately, this will likely lead to a situation (based on historical precedent) where the 'monies acquired' will become misappropriated and funnelled into some shady outfit like the World Bank, or if given to governments, justified for the facilitation of military ventures, instead of going directly into the pockets, and tummies, of the earth's six billions neediest people.

If the money went directly to the six billions least wealthy people in the world, bypassing the absurdly rich know-it-all political middlemen governing bodies, then I'd be all over it!

Think, we could use the money to buy mosquito nets and help curb insect borne diseases in sub-saharan Africa.  We could use the money to better redirect the global food surplus to feed hungry people in the third world who are currently in desperate need. Other money could go directly toward the sciences to help discover cures for diseases and make scientific breakthroughs…but I've heard all that before, did technology shorten the work week for chinese workers in massive manufacturing plants? Did computers in every home save us time and energy, and not encourage us to purchase evermore while living faster and busier lives?

Colonization
As for the billionaires themselves, they're probably just going to have to acquire, harvest, and defend their resources the ol' fashioned way, through a time honoured and ancient method known as 'Colonization' (by Milton Bradley). 

The Billionaires are going to have to build themselves the outer-space version of the Nina, Pinta, and The Santa-Maria, in order to stake their claim, and then perhaps a Martian Mayflower might even be in order. 

New Neighbours
Once landed, they will have to then deal with the nasty consequences of having disturbed any locals (whoever they may be) which will no doubt involve their displacement by the bulldozing of their homes, caves, or space pods, to create new colonized settlements. 


Next will no doubt come the justification and building of 'walls', the segregation of communities, all controlled of course, through the use of ID passes, under a policy of state sponsored humiliation and mistreatment of the locals by well paid 'control officers'. 

Eventually, when the locals rise up and ask for their land (and rights) back, the Billionaires will have to crush the insurrection using 'paid for godless mercenaries' who will in turn not hesitate to violate the Natural Law rights of the planets citizens and indigenous peoples.

All this will facilitate the Billionaires 'legal right' to profit from his purchase. The locals however, will be given a chance (the lucky and obedient ones that is) to work long hours on behalf of these Billionaires (at absurdly low wages of course) tilling the soil and working the lithium mines of a planet they had once claimed as their own. 

There will be some locals who will never accept this newfound form of serfdom, and the indignity of being treated as second class citizens on their own planet. These 'indignant ones'  will form secretive resistance organizations and begin to stir up, and foment all kinds of nasty shit. 

The Plan
The Billionaires will be unfazed though, after all, they will have expected this predictable reaction from the very onset, and will have certainly had a plan set in place to deal with the inevitability of any planetary insurrection. 

The plan the Billionaires will enact will be to pay certain locals handsome sums of money to infiltrate these organizations, by posing as dissenters themselves. These infiltrators or double-agents will rise to the top of the dissenting insurgencies and organizations, in order to potentially orchestrate and conduct 'controlled terrorist acts' and various other 'sting operations'.  Hopefully for the Billionaires, all this will be done in an orderly enough fashion as to convince, and not totally decimate, those employed, contented and relatively established locals, of the necessity for ever-tighter security measures. 

Much of the wealth of the planet will then be funnelled into a military and security industry at the expense of local taxpayers, all for the benefit of it's lucky wealthy shareholders. 

However, the planets insurgency problems will never be solved, for so long as the situation remains 'under control', the racket can be perpetuated indefinitely on behalf of the Billionaires personal interests.

At some point, the locals will demand a 'democratic' government, in order to make sure every citizen has their personal rights protected, and at that point,  they will be encouraged to elect well funded politicians who will later pass laws which have the dual purpose of serving the economic interest of the billionaires, while appeasing their paranoid security fears. 

Enter, The Politicians
These politicians, these champions of democracy, will no doubt run their campaigns based on promises of a better life for the planets indigenous peoples and other notable minorities, but once elected, these same politicians will break their campaign promises, and instead introduce laws and policies never before mentioned during the course of their election campaigns. 

At some point, there will certainly come wars with neighbouring planets, and these wars will of course always be about the Billionaires unfettered access to disputed resources.

The Billionaires, and their payed for politicians, will convince the locals to fight this outer-space aggressive adversarial menace from other planets on 'moral grounds', demonizing them in the media, by pointing out their undoubtably egregious abuses of it's citizen's personal dignity. This will then convince the simple folk to lay down their precious lives for the love of their home,  and now thoroughly owned, planet. 

Historical Nightmare
I don't know where I get my overactive imagination, or why I think that Billionaires owning extra-terrestrial planets for the purpose of extracting it's resources will end up playing out this way?  Is it because of the precedent already set by human history, or is it because of how I view our species, also known as humanity, and how after all these millennia, have not yet evolved past the greed/ fear level of consciousness?  Or maybe it's just another bad dream?!


Dirty CT   April 2012

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