1 post tagged “aliens”

I watched the 2007 remake of The Invasion the other night. As a remake of the 1956 and 1978 Invasion of the body snatcher films, I thought it was ok. Nothing spectacular. One scene I particularly enjoyed was the following conversation between a Russian ambassador and a Washington psychiatrist that addressed the human problem. It made me think about the recently uncovered evil of Austria's Joseph Fritzl this week.

Yorish: I say that civilization is an illusion, a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals, driven by primal instincts. As a psychiatrist, you must know this to be true.
Carol: To be honest, ambassador, when someone starts talking to me about the truth, what I hear is what they're telling me about themselves more than what they're saying about the world.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Quite right, well done, doctor.
Yorish: Perhaps this is true, perhaps being a Russian in this country is a kind of pathology. So what do you think, can you help me? Can you give me a pill? To make me see the world the way you Americans see the world. Can a pill help me understand Iraq, or Dafur, or even New Orleans?
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Don't be drawn in by his madness, doctor. He is Russian, he needs to argue like he needs to breathe.
Yorish: All I am saying is that civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. To imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. Well, this is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.
Carol: While I'll give you that we still retain some basic animal instincts, you have to admit we're not the same animal we were a few thousand years ago.
Yorish: True.
Carol: Read Piaget, Kohlberg or Maslow, Graves, Wilber, and you'll see that we're still evolving. Our consciousness is changing. Five hundred years ago, postmodern feminists didn't exist yet one sits right beside you today. And while that fact may not undo all of the terrible things that have been done in this world, at least it gives me reason to believe that one day, things may be different.
Yorish: Thank you, doctor.
Carol: You're welcome, ambassador.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Excellent.

We all ask the big 'why?' when acts of evil occur. Its the human problem. How could someone lock their daughter up for 24 years? What makes someone do such? How could they?

At least we all have the ability to react to such crimes and violence in humanity with disgust. We can all have the hope that one day as Carol says in The Invasion that 'things may be different'. That we will finally grow up and stop hurting each other. Maybe then we can finally progress.