Never Will Understand People

In the midst of revolution, Manuel makes a comment that stuck out in my mind: “Never will understand people!” (350). It is easy to understand why understand why Manuel does not understand people. Even though Luna spent three days warning the inhabitants of each of the locations it intended to bomb, they do not leave. Instead, they stay to “see show. To laugh at our [Luna’s] nonsense” (350), and as a result get killed. Then, they have the nerve to yell at Luna for its acts of “senseless slaughter” (350). The Terrans’ actions lead me to make two statements about humankind, ‘people are stupid’ and ‘people are hypocritical’.

If something huge is going to fall out of space onto the point marked ‘X’, would you stand on X or would you get the hell out of there? The Terrans do not just stand on X they congregate there bringing their families and everyone they know. Manuel disbelievingly narrates this fact, unable to accept that people would bring picnic baskets to a future spot of destruction as if war was a spectacle. The Terrans’ actions demonstrate point one, ‘people are stupid’. We do not have to read Heinlein’s novel to see this statement proved we just need to look around for evidence. Exhibit A: Stella Liebeck, the 81-year old woman after whom the infamous Stella Awards are named. She spilled coffee on herself while driving and landed up suing McDonald’s because surprise, surprise, the coffee was hot and burned her. Imagine, hot coffee? What’s even more ridiculous is the amount of money she won from her lawsuit, $2.9 million. What does the existence and so-called “validity” of such frivolous lawsuits prove if not the absolute stupidity of people? Exhibit B: President G.W. Bush, need I say more?

Now on to the second statement, ‘people are hypocritical’. As Manuel says, “Hadn’t been any indignation over their [Earth’s] invasion and (nuclear!) bombing of us four days earlier – but oh were they sore over our ‘premeditated murder’” (350). Terrans invade Luna without any moral qualms, but when the Loonies retaliate they are called murderers. This seems unfair for two reasons: one, Earth invaded first thereby justifying retaliation by Luna; and two, while Earth invaded an unarmed planet without prior warning, Luna gave advance warning to people who had ample means to defend themselves. Another example of Terran hypocrisy is heard from the Indian government who is furious at Luna for killing fish because all life is sacred. Manuel points out the hypocrisy by saying, “but principle of sacredness of all life did not apply to us; they wanted our heads” (352).

In the Bush administration, hypocrisy seems to be more blatant than ever. In the past, the U.S. chided developing nations for seeking to import cheap genetic drugs to fight against epidemics caused by AIDS, malaria, and other deadly infectious diseases. After the September 11^th attacks, however, the U.S. rushed to import genetic drugs to combat anthrax. Not only does the U.S. have the means to afford patented drugs, the anthrax outbreak occurred on a severely limited scale that cannot even be compared to the AIDS epidemic in developing countries. In my opinion, actions committed by the U.S. most comparable to Earth’s invasion of Luna because of its self-righteous, hypocritical nature are its complaints about nuclear weapons. While the U.S., or any other developed nation with the exception of Japan, does not question its right to possess or use nuclear weapons, it made a huge fuss about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the development of nukes in South Korea. Try as I might, I cannot understand the logic of these complaints. Nuclear weapons are bad. Countries should not possess nuclear weapons. But, the U.S. can possess nuclear weapons. But, if other countries possess nuclear weapons we need to invade or chastise them. What!!??? If this does not prove the hypocritical nature of humankind, I do not know what does. I conclude, people are stupid and hypocritical.