Alien Life?

 Think about alien life, assuming it exists.  The universe is vast and the planets in our solar system would not support advanced life and probably no life at all.

Once you get out of our solar system, the nearest star is about 4.5 light years away.  While that might sound close, most of us would have trouble really envisioning that distance.  A light year is the distance light can travel in a year.  I suppose a planet could exist in that solar system that supports life but if it does we haven't been able to detect it.  We think there is an earth like planer in that solar system based on measurements but we cant go there and verify it.

The point to be made is that space is so vast that even if life advanced enough to be exploring space exists, it is not going to stumble across us, even if it is trying to detect other life.  We think that we are worth looking only because we still, collectively think we are the center of things.

In science fiction, emphasize the fiction they create various mechanisms to account for this like suspended animation, worm holes or other concepts.  These don't exist and without them we are not visiting other solar systems.  Could they exist?  Well who knows but the ideas are creative but not likely.

What is pretty certain is that we haven't had any visitors just dropping by undetected to examine us.  

Finding Blame

 We like to place blame for things.  There often isn't any real reason too, but it makes us feel better.

Did chamberlain enable Hitler at Munich?  Maybe he did, but had he rejected the deal would things have gone differently?  Who is responsible for inflation or high gas prices, Biden?  Almost definitely not but it plays well with the right wing of this country.

On the other hand people also like to attribute big things to odd causes.  Do butterflies flapping their wings lead to tornados.  

We waste a lot of time and effort to determine causes and fault when by that time it already happened.  In the military the debriefing relates to avoiding the same problem in the future.  It can work, but that depends.  The British Navy during the age of sail only engaged when the wind was favorable to them.  This seems like a policy all the Navies would have followed but I guess they did it better.

Sometimes the inquiry is to punish the offenders.  Some are designed to discredit the innocent.

Sometimes they accomplish nothing at all.

Irreconcilable Differences?

 Let us consider two families.  One is a socially conservative one that believe in "old fashioned" values.  They don't want to be blamed for historical injustice even if they might have ancestors who were complicit, but they didn't own slaves or hang anybody.  They believe that abortion is wrong because a fetus is just an unborn baby.  They don't want their children to be transgender or even homosexual and want them to become the next generation of them.  They like hunting and own some guns which they also use for target practice.  They don't see any reason why the life they grew up in has to change and why their children should be exposed to things they don't agree with.  No one is trying to make them do anything they don't want to although they feel like some are.  

Consider a second family, deeply entrenched in progressive values.  They think all people should be free to decide how they want to live.  Women should decide whether they carry a pregnancy to fruition or not and hey should be medically supported either way.  The Government needs to provide every resident certain basic rights, including life (health insurance) liberty (the right to vote freely) and pursuit of happiness (education and retirement support).  People should be able to realize their potential despite the circumstances of their birth and the accumulated wealth of their parents.  

Of these two who is oppressing who?  Both feel threatened by current events and the divisiveness is growing.  

In some cases, the differences are irreconcilable. If you believe abortion is murder, you simply can't condone it.  Certainly, we have willing parents who desperately want to adopt who can't right now or have to go to foreign countries. It doesn't quire work out that way, in real life, as these might not be the babies they want to adopt.  Further, the mothers lose fundamental rights if we treat them as incubators.  

The solution might be better sex education and more availability of contraceptives, but that might be construed as interference in one's values.  

It becomes more problematic when society and schools teach your children thing you don't agree with.  

I suspect over time it will resolve itself much like issues of the past faded away.  It just is disruptive for a time.  

Thoughts

 What is a little hard to understand is how many people are conned by the lies and alternate reality being pushed on right wing news.  

We would have seen an unprecedented event if the commenters were dealing with reality the reinstatement of a defeated President.  Of course it didn't happen at least not here.

It sort of happened in Afghanistan where after 20 years and billions of dollars we saw how dedicated people can easily beat what are essentially mercenaries.

I'm sure the right wing will want to blame Biden and the democrats but whether their sheep will believe it is na open question.

What is not going to happen is the rise of an Islamic Caliphate.

Some analysis is comparing the withdrawal from Iraq with Afghanistan.

The difference is that in Afghanistan we have an armed group that has its own agenda while in Iraq we had more of these semi mercenaries who flee at danger.

The willingness to fight and possibly die requires that you believe in your cause.  

Without that it is just a bunch of armed dilettantes.

There is no power vacuum in Afghanistan.