Alien Steriotypes!

[Olly K]

Why does everyone give aliens such a bad image?
Why does everyone assume aliens will eat or destroy us?
Why does everyone assume they want to conquer Earth?
Why does everyone assume that they are the intelligent species?
Why does everyone assume that they had special powers?

It really isn't fair! Everyone's been watching too many movies and built up a steriotypical view of them!

Well thanks allot!

Now they'll never come down to meet us, make peace and offer an allience! Because if they do they'll just get locked up and disected by the stupid FBI or MIB!

Not Fair!

[NerdInside]

Let FK's official alien speak up! gdstudio, the floor is all yours.

[mabbacuda]

Yeah they aren't all that bad, just a few yobs from Mars that spoil it for all the others...

[NerdInside]

This better not turn into a post about Star Wars. Cause if it does I will... do, some, bad, stuff.

[Olly K]

Originally posted by mabbacuda
Yeah they aren't all that bad, just a few yobs from Mars that spoil it for all the others...

Mars! There's another steriotype! Aliens comes from Mars and they're called Martians I suppose!
Wrong! The only aliens that are in our solar system (bar us humans)live on mercury and are called donx - pronounced donz!
They're iddy biddy little monkey things and they live in the very centre of they're planet where it's actually ice!

[Hippyscum]

Originally posted by Olly K
Why does everyone give aliens such a bad image?
Why does everyone assume aliens will eat or destroy us?
Why does everyone assume they want to conquer Earth?
Why does everyone assume that they are the intelligent species?
Why does everyone assume that they had special powers?

It really isn't fair! Everyone's been watching too many movies and built up a steriotypical view of them!

Well thanks allot!

Now they'll never come down to meet us, make peace and offer an allience! Because if they do they'll just get locked up and disected by the stupid FBI or MIB!

Not Fair!

it's actually quite simple:
Fear for the unknown
[/end_wise_lesson_of_today]

[Olly K]

Fear for the unknown is still no excuse to disect them!

[Hippyscum]

Originally posted by Olly K
Fear for the unknown is still no excuse to disect them!

so...what are your next steps, set up "SADOSA"?
(society against discrimination of sterEotype aliens)
[Edited by Hippyscum on 06-06-2002 at 07:12 AM]

[enemem]

stereotype

- n.

[TallGuyLittleCar]

I went fishing on europa with gdstudios

[mabbacuda]

I hear it's nice this time of year, I'll have to pop over there next time i'm in the area.

[gdstudios]

Originally posted by Olly K
Why does everyone give aliens such a bad image?
Why does everyone assume aliens will eat or destroy us?
Why does everyone assume they want to conquer Earth?
Why does everyone assume that they are the intelligent species?
Why does everyone assume that they had special powers?

It really isn't fair! Everyone's been watching too many movies and built up a steriotypical view of them!

Well thanks allot!

Now they'll never come down to meet us, make peace and offer an allience! Because if they do they'll just get locked up and disected by the stupid FBI or MIB!

Not Fair!

GREAT thread topic Olly K!!!

I find this topic fascinating actually. We could have a giant discussion about this if you guys want to.

IMHO, belief in extraterrestrial life on Earth is much like belief in religion. In fact, such belief has become a religion for many. To answer your questions in order:

1). They are given a bad image for a couple of reasons. One, because there is plenty of injustice in this world, and those treated unjustly need to find a "higher power" to blame for those injustices. Same as religion really IMO. Two, because it is human nature to think of the unknown as a negative force. What is racism and prejudice, but a stereotype given to those who you do not know enough about. It's all about prejudgement.

2). Same as above. An additonal thought, not necessarily my beliefs on this one: People understand that, at some point, human beings will cease to exist. Many people even discuss the coming apocalypse nowadays as though it were imminent. I think that humans see the problems in the world and see how many of them are unsolvable. World Hunger, Drought, Middle East crisis. These people will not allow for themselves to feel responsible for the end, so they are already setting themselves up for a potential fall by blaming an invisible force that cannot be contacted, etc... These people can say whatever they want and no one can prove them wrong. This is why conspiracy theories are so popular.

3). Answered sufficiently above.

4). This, again, has to do with believing in a higher power. Remember, for many people, belief in aliens has replaced the belief in God, or the Gods. People need to worship something in order to feel good about themselves. No one wants the burden of being in charge of everything. People get the greatest amount of pleasure from the observation anfd judgement of others. In this case, those being observed and judged are aliens.

5). Same general philosphy behind this I think. It's all about reverence and admiring those who you feel are the higher power.

In conclusion, I think the movies and television shows we watch do have some influence on what we think of aliens. But, keep in mind, that this presentation of them has been consistent from the beginning. Even in the 50's and 60's when these ideas were brought out in entertainment, they were always presenting a negative view of our friends from outerspace. In the 1950's the US Military conducted an official investigation into the reported sightings of thousands of UFO's across the nation.

The UFO culture had started in 1947 (Roswell crash) and coincided with the development and use of the Atomic bomb. Doomsday talk was in the air. Go back and read the headlines from those days. Fascinating stuff! People thought the aliens had come to watch us as we detonated this weapon of mass destruction. Others thought the aliens had come to take the Earth back, as it was theirs to begin with and we were just holding it for them until they came back. The aliens had to accelerate their return because of the fact that humans developed such a horrible weapon, capable of qiping out entire civilizations, if not the entire planet.

If you think about it, the UFO/Alien culture was born during a period of evil. It was spawned during a period of immensely evil acts. Thus, people thoughts and perceptions about the culture are routed in negativity. They will always be negative. Hollywood saw this trend, played on it, and to this day (X-Files) shows and movies about such topics are enormously popular.

-"The truth is out there!"

Your resident conspiracy theorist

[flipshark]

If aliens were to come to earth, we would have to presume they are more intelligent than us and thus more advanced.

I mean they would have the ability to travel through deep space whereas I sometimes think man has not yet made it to the moon (no definite proof yet!)

As for them wanting to eat, kill, destroy, or conquer us, like I said above in order to travel through space they would have to be more advanced (weaponary included), and thus we would probably be left at their mercy.

If we travelled to another planet, we would be abducting dissecting, and studying them, thus we assume they would do the same to us.

[siriusss]

But why would advanced weaponry make them want to kill us? Or conquer us?

[Olly K]

Originally posted by flipshark
If aliens were to come to earth, we would have to presume they are more intelligent than us and thus more advanced.

I mean they would have the ability to travel through deep space whereas I sometimes think man has not yet made it to the moon (no definite proof yet!)

As for them wanting to eat, kill, destroy, or conquer us, like I said above in order to travel through space they would have to be more advanced (weaponary included), and thus we would probably be left at their mercy.

If we travelled to another planet, we would be abducting dissecting, and studying them, thus we assume they would do the same to us.

A- If they're so intelligent, they aint gonna travel millions of lightyears just to eat us!!!

B- If they're so intelligent they'll realise that war is not the way to go!!!

C- We don't have the right to disect aliens just because we seek knowledge. There is some value to having those little mysteries in life!!!

I don't think we should have to learn about why apples fall to the ground and stuff like that either, THEY JUST DO!!!

[fruitloopdesign]

surely it would be acceptable to say they are more intelligent... after all it would take quite a high amount of intelligence to build a ship to get here!

[Subway]

I hope that aliens are like in the movie "Contact" cause I really liked the idea behind the book/movie.



Fredi

[fruitloopdesign]

Originally posted by Subway
I hope that aliens are like in the movie "Contact" cause I really liked the idea behind the book/movie.



Fredi

ive not seen that film... whats the story (and i can guess aliens lol)

[Hippyscum]

Originally posted by fruitloopdesign

Originally posted by Subway
I hope that aliens are like in the movie "Contact" cause I really liked the idea behind the book/movie.



Fredi

ive not seen that film... whats the story (and i can guess aliens lol)

It's about blonde big-breasted alien chicks coming to earth
giving plesure and joy to all the nerds in the world, becouse they understand that looks don't matter

(jk)

[Subway]

Originally posted by fruitloopdesign
ive not seen that film... whats the story (and i can guess aliens lol)

This is a quote from a review:

I'm a believer in extra-terrestrial life for the exact reason this film's characters believe in them: if we were alone, it would be a pretty large chunk of wasted space. ALIENS EXIST! this film does a masterful job at how people would react to this message received back. and there is a powerful message about faith and science being able to work together, though that message may seem a bit heavy-handed.

On a side note, i doubt we'd ever come into contact with aliens, and not for the lack of trying, but just because the distance is far too great. i would love it if we were to contact other beings, but it wont happen just yet.

In the movie, you never see an alien, not the real form cause the aliens shows up in a form that we are used to. The main thing about the movie is that the seti project recieved a signal with a coded plan to build a machine. After the machine was build, J. Foster take a travel thru a wurmhole or something and then the "alien" has show her the bigger thing about life in the universe ... a lot of planets with different life forms ...

Anyway, buy the DVD

Fredi