what are the odds?

in SF, we see all the time new worlds with apparently one culture (most prevalent in t.v. and movies, of course, where there's no time and probably little interest in delving too deep into it). assuming most worlds developed along the same lines as earth (which is easy to assume, seeing as how most of the planets have a lot in common with earth, right down to geography and comparable physical bodies and psychologies), what would it take for earth to come together under one umbrella? i've seen where cataclysm on other planets is the premise for this 'brotherhood of man,' but that's where most explanation ends. hey, i'm not a polymath here, i need something else to help me connect the dots. the forming of one generic culture rather indicates the eradication of most others, doesn't it?

so, realistically, is it plausible to have a one-world culture? if so, how? if only under certain conditions, such as mutual agreement (this shouldn't be construed as that culture not being warlike), would this indicate a higher level of social sophistication that's contrary to the notion that they're basically just like us (which is somewhat of a slam against humanity, lol)?

and i admit it's something you see on t.v. and movies moreso in books where you can give some cursory background information, if any at all. while i doubt you have to do 30 volumes to do a brief planetary history (an encompassing one, yes, like you mention), there's certainly the impression that prit near all planets visited are under one rule (eventho often a coup is in progress).

were we visited today by aliens, we as curious humans would want to know everything we possibly could about them, as much as they'd be willing to tell us. odd, that, i think: we'd probably wind up knowing more about them than we know about ourselves in a lot of ways. i reckon the united nations would insist on dealing with aliens, which no doubt is the only reason they stay away, heh heh. certainly before dropping in they'd have an overall of how earth works, but like FA said, maybe not down to the nth degree (although it shouldn't be surprising if they *did*).

interesting analogy about the long street, WH. i live on a long street which starts out on the posher side (where i used to live), the middle of the street (where i live now, just one street back), and where elm street crosses, it's a sharp drop into lower income houses. almost literally, the 'higher' you go up on the street the more expensive the homes are, and presumably the difference in lifestyle to a certain degree. while i can't say the culture is necessarily vastly different, certain outward aspects are markedly different, which certainly obviously reflects the economics of the two ends, but also reflects the attitudes in some way. and this had been a very redneck suburb, but the urban areas are emptying out by a lot of people and now we've got black families where we didn't before, and mexicans are spotted on a corner or two here and there, both of whom bring a different culture onto the street. not surprisingly, i know a lot of people who hate it, although most don't really care overmuch.

in america, a lot of schools (mostly urban) required students to pass through a metal detector. plenty of girls have been caught trying to smuggle in razor blades in their mouth, as one way they'd fight each other is slashing at one another's faces. i've not heard if it being much of a problem in several years: it almost was a fad thing to do, it seemed.

it's weird. i graduated in 1988, and i think that was the last year where violence was contained to mostly fist-fights. class of '89 is where kids started bringing in guns and knives on an unprecedented scale (or maybe it's a case of them just getting caught? i tend not to agree with that, though, as i'd not even heard rumours of these things being carried in by the worst kids).

i think a lot of this is copy-cat type stuff. you see in a movie where the kids lie in the middle of a busy highway, then kids die doing it in real life. you see a story about one guy making a shoe bomb with a lighter, and now lighters on airplanes are forbidden. news reports about kids getting high off airplane glue sends kids right to the hobby shop.

that's not to say these people wouldn't have just done some other form of crime. people are pretty inventive when it comes to stuff like that, sometimes. one ex-con i know told me how they'd use to melt celophane wrappers from cigarette packs to make shivs out of. not really surprising: give a criminal all day to think about something and they're going to arrive at some conclusions, lol.

i think something else that should be considered is the economy of a place. naturally, were every job in america gone tomorrow, those who didn't kill themselves will eventually turn to crime if that's the only other recourse to feed their family. i once got into an argument with a girl who i otherwise wanted to sack because she said up and down how she wouldn't crash a bakery window to feed her kids. bullsh*t. if your one single option is pretty theft or starving your children, 99.9% of people, at least i think, would toss that brick. i would without a second's hesitation if i had no choice. ironically, this girl was a 20 year old single mother drinking beer with us, so not only was she breaking the law by being underage, she can't really claim to be highly pious having a child out of wedlock. but, oh, she wouldn't break a window to feed her child. yeah, right. gimme a break. i'm far more impressed with people when they admit what they'd do in a pinch than trying to impress me with their hypothetical ethics that fly in the face of everything else they say and do right in front of me.

i've seen chicks battle it out. things like what you describe only seems to come to our attention when someone gets killed. but the people i know who've been stabbed (actually, i've know quite a few, all male) are never the top news story of the day.

i blame rock and roll. it all started going to hell after that.

we don't have as many accents and terrifically different vernaculars one on end of the street as opposed to the other, but we're not as, ah, concentrated, i guess you could say, as maybe y'all are over there. i get some professional-type in a social situation and a lot of 'em abandon their eloquence and polished political correctness the moment you give 'em a beer. on a per capita basis, it's been my experience that a working-class person is just as 'good' as professionals are trained to be. that is, people is people.

i like what you said, zolah. i'm not a historian to debate it, though. a lot if not most successful civilizations have also been very warlike. propaganda programmes are usually tough to remove, too. for right or wrong, the east has operated under a code of honour, and how many people have died for that? not to mention repressing the women-folk. for right or wrong, americans have our 'duty,' reinforced, in my case, from first grade by saying the pledge of allegiance every morning then learning about how great the pilgrims were and how our country was based on getting away from oppression (oh, and the pilgrims weren't oppressive, as evidence by them getting the boot from how many european countries for their ultra-strict beliefs? lol), and not colonized by the europeans for profit. the point is those in power will use high ideals to get you to do what they want you to do. amazingly, globalization has been tauted as the best thing since sliced bread from time to time, saying how better off we all are now while plant after plant shuts down and you can't hardly talk to someone who speaks your language when you need technical advice. those in power say it's a great opportunity for people to go back to school and improve their lives (conveniently neglecting to say that you're now if competition with everyone else that's been displaced on top of the kids who'll do the same job for less).

having never been to prison i have to defer to one with that experience. doesn't matter really how much cellophane it takes, they'd use that much, i reckon.

i don't think rock and roll was a reflection as much as an instigator (now, really, i don't believe this, but just playing devil's advocate. guess i forgot to add the smiley to the previous statement.) by the same token, what long-standing social relevance has jazz, for example, had where you could point to it and say, 'wow, it all went downhill from there, huh,'? defenders of r&r like to paint it as a symptom. how true is that, though?

being a victim of globalization, we're bound not to see eye-to-eye on it. i find it very dubious anyone would call themselves 'temporarily displaced' with a smile on their face if it was them who just lost their job and now have to turn around and start working for a new company, having given the last one eleven years of their life like i had. so some mexicans can have my job, make a crappy product (which is proven to be the case), and *still* live in squalor? the vast majority of american jobs lost have gone directly to third world countries. the reason isn't to raise their standard of living. anyone who spouts that jibberish is, well, i'll be nice and say 'not right.' these jobs go to third world countries not for quality issued, it's pure plain money. even at minimum wage, americans can't compete. and now that mexico is wanting more money, the shift has been more to china, but even there things seem to be changing gradually, as it's my understanding, thus it's now india and pakistan who are getting work. once they want more, the shift will be to the next third world country.

it's a bubble that will burst. when it does, america will be the worse off for it while those countries won't have progressed virtually one iota. they're certainly not getting paid enough to buy the products they produce. they depend greatly on americans essentially buying back our own product, and once we can't (this particularly applies to the auto industry in which i worked), they'll be 'permanently laid-off', too.

so, with all due respect towards you and your opinion, please don't tell me i lost my job for the betterment of the world. that'd be utterly ignorant nonsense. and please don't say i, as a union member, made too much money. unless, of course, you want to pisss me right the hell on off, lol. suffice it to say i earned every dime i made.

i'm not sure what you're baffled about, FA. i've otherwise just responded to threads and comments, some of which may go off on a tangent for a little bit. you hardly need anyone's permission to debate anything you don't agree with. sadly, i feel we probably have very little common ground when it comes to issues outside literary discussions, so that you disagree with a lot of what i wrote doesn't come as any surprise.

i agree the media fabricates trends. always have to a certain extent. thus the old saying (paraphrased), 'newspapers are half gossip, half lies, and half truths.' a lot of newspapers in particularly have political affiliations, so by 'fabricating,' i also mean the order and prominance of the articles can certainly lead a casual reader over time to give more weight to an issue or ideal than it merits on its own.

funny, too, that plenty of very evolved worlds like to walk around in robes. does wearing a robe harken back to great greek philosophers, illustrating how intellectually advanced they are? if your society were so intellectually advanced, would that negate its potential for waging war?