Will we be able to tell other extra-terrestrial civilizations that we are fair and equitable on Earth?

Question

When we examine the actions taken by large and wealthy nations against smaller nations, we conclude that the larger countries operate without consideration for the cultures, beliefs and political systems in the smaller countries. My view is that some nations' desire is to create smaller dependencies throughout the world to establish power bases. Countries should have definite codes and standards to guide their action. The UN has not been able to curb the unfair practices of the power-hungry nations which use spurious reasons for their bold actions which leave smaller nations helpless and prone to taking reprisals against the offending nations. A fair world seen through the eyes of all is what most human beings seek.

Answer 1

That would be a big fat lie and anyone who could communicate with us would see how unfair and greedy and selfish we are.

Answer 2

To ask the question of 'Will we be able to tell other extra-terrestrial civilizations that we are fair and equitable on Earth', you are putting forward a number of ideas - firstly that there are extra-terrestrial civilizations, that they are more or as advanced than us, that they want to communicte, and that they will have a similar moral ideology to ours - not that we can really decide what that is anyway - for example is killing another person wrong (war, murder and the death penalty) - or is it only wrong if the law says so ?(law according to whom?). Moving over this whole idea of extra-terrestrials, you then include fair and equitable. How would you even begin to define what fair or equitable actually means - let me give you an exmple:- If by fair and equitable you mean that everyone should have access to the same things - how would that work (i know this is a little purile but go with it there is a point)if I lived in the tundra of Siberia I have diferent needs than if I lived in the amazon rainforest - how do you define what is fair when the environments that we live in are so different. Then you can look at the differences in cultures, also expectations based on life experiences, and one other thought when referring to the idea of fairness - in your question you seem to talk about this whole idea of fairness and equitability in relation to humans - you do not seem to even approach the idea of being fair or equitable to animals .

So even if you leave all that aside the way I see it is should we have to or want to ? I agree that most big countries seem to have little regard for the fortunes of the smaller or weaker countries. However I believe that this is just a larger example of animal instinct. If you consider the fight or flight syndrome - for those who do not know this it is a basic animal instinct - when there is a threat coming we have to decide wether we will fight it or run away (take flight). To suggest that bigger countries do not percieve smaller countries as a threat simply is saying will will stay and fight leaving the smaller weaker countries to either give in or take flight. Whilst I find this situation abhorent, it is how I percieve the world. Therefore to say that we should try to suggest that we can be fair and equitable would I believe infer that we are trying to move away from the true instincts that we show and provide a fabrication which is little more than desire. Why should we want to suggest that we are fair and equitable anyway? Is not the idea of survival of the fittest a far more realistic, honest and desirable attribute of a planet in the eyes of an extra-terrestrial civilisation (assuming they have eyes of course).

Answer 3

You have hit the nail on the head. This is the problem facing humanity that's why smaller nations and poorer ones ( North Korea and Pakistan) Feel they should use their limited resources, not for improved living conditions or for food, but for nuclear bombs. We in the west are on the wrong track singling out Muslims for special anti-terror measures. But we don't need a computer model to tell us that the dissatisfaction is all over the third world and soon other groups will emerge to fight against this "Injustice" or what they would call it. Action should be taken to fairly distribute the available resources now before we start to fight the rest of the world, some armed with nuclear weapons. We will have nothing good to tell aliens the way things are going.

Answer 4

I agree with everything everyone has said - with the exceptions of talking about 'smaller nations' or 'power hungry nations'....... none of these actually, really, incorporate the citizens of those countries - the majority of humanity is/are civilised and humane people - but our politicians (and for that matter 'religious' leaders) all have the same agenda: to maintain their power by maintaining their power bases by subjugating the ordinary 'lowly' citizien .....
'ultimate power corrupts power ultimately'......
and even if we did treat each other fairly - the treatment an extraterrestial would receive - like the locking up, confinement, dissection and death - due to nothing more than basic human curiosity and inquisitiveness would send out an alternative message.....
effectively 'we' the 'ordinary' human being - can't win..... with either our own race or any extraterrestials......

Answer 5

The Klingons would probably like the idea of pitting larger & wealthier nations against the smaller ones. If I were a visiting alien, a quick glance around the globe would tell me that there is a communication problem, for starters. I don't think I could live on another planet if people did the same there as is here. That would be kind of senseless.

Answer 6

Let’s assume that other extra -terrestrial civilisation have been watching us or have been amongst us for a while now, then let us examine some of the events they would have seen:
The colonials coming to Africa, forcefully take away the inhabitants thousands of miles from their continent to work as beast of laden (in the most appalling conditions, the slave owners even treated their dogs better, only a quarter of the slaves made it alive) in cotton fields and sugarcane plantations, never to return home again. They further plunder the continent of its resources and riches to help increase the wealth of Europe. When slavery became unprofitable, they now devised a new form of accepted slavery i.e. lending these African countries loans ( with money made from the proceeds of slavery and plundering the same region) they didn’t need at repayment terms that could never be met thereby forcing them to perpetual penury…
Don’t let me even start with the Red Indians, Holocust, Israel/ Palestine, etc.
Would we be able to say we are fair and equitable on earth, your guess is as good as mine.

Answer 7

No, because we are not. With so many of the world's population starving, poor and uneducated, and our one and only superpower consuming oil like there's no end to it, and destabilising democratic govts. all over the world (just look at Latin and South America), I would hope our alien friends would give us some help in sorting out the mess that's being made of our beautiful planet by a corrupt, greedy and war-mongering minority.

Answer 8

I have tagged all precedent answers as 'good' answers, even though the quality of the underlaid arguments varies widely.
The causes of the difficulties to organize and balance human collectivity and it's provisions and utilities on all levels of life are highly interlaced with each other and to assaciate such with simple terms as e.g. 'big' or 'small', 'left' and 'right' and equivalents of sense cannot replace a profound analysis.

Answer 9

This is perfectly possible. The other extra terrestrial civilisation will be told that we are fair and equitable on Earth. Will they have any option to prevent us from telling? What happens next should be of no concern to them. On our planet--We have been told that it is okay to have three wives at the same time ( but not three husbands at the same time- excuse) but if you are not belonging to my religion the it is not fair to have more than one wife (or husband) at the same time. This indicates--We are fair and equitable by our own standards in our own society on Earth. We do not have any hindrance in preaching multiple standards on this planet--Why the extra terrestrial creature should not tolerate and try to interfere with our multiple-standards of judgement is not clear to me.

Answer 10

Be honest....if you were an extra-terrestrial circling this planet, looking down on all the upheaval and fighting that goes on, would you feel like landing and saying hello....I think not, and who would blame you.....For the moment we are no threat to them, only to ourselves. When this possibility arises, they will remove us in one final action and the Earth will recover in its own time as it has before. The worst living creature ever to evolve or be placed here is man and he will continue to destroy this planet for his greed and selfish personal needs. One way or another, it will have to stop if we are to survive....if we don't do it, they will.

Answer 11

If you think about it, if we found extra-terrestrial life landing on our planet we would be very freaked out and would think they've come to get us, so it would probably be the same for them. However if they landed here, they would be less scared of us, and we'd be able to show them how we live our lifes. We'd show them love and how to get on- whether or not they would understand our language or what we do, does, however seem unlikely.
You have given an exelent question, well done.