Three weeks ago, it was the 4th of July which throughout the rest of the world isn't that big of a deal, but here in the United States it's kind of a thing. A little over 238 years, the United States began its long journey to the nation that it has become today. Thoughts on that front will be tabled for another day, however.
In the moment, I'd like to focus on how I spent approximately two hours of my 4th. Here in the Baystate, we were absolutely deluged with rain along with lightning, but fortunately for me, FX Network was running an Independence Day marathon, and as it had been literally years since I saw it, I settled in to watch.
Will Smith was just beginning his run of summer blockbuster movies*, and the story, if a little hokey, was entertaining. I was surprised at how well the movie has held up over the years, actually. I can remember thinking when I first saw the movie, how amazing the special effects were. They're still alright, but definitely second tier by now.
Getting back to the thought that occurred to me while I was watching the movie was how much planet Earth could use a legitimate outer space Alien invasion. I would like to think that as a species, we would find a way to pull together, and defeat a common enemy. The troubles in the Middle East, our own domestic strife, and problems the world over would disappear in literally one instant if only the Aliens would attack. Heck, Maxxtone might finally release their long shelved "Aliens" project, which in and of itself would make the Invasion worthwhile.
What would be most interesting to me, is that assuming us puny Earthlings managed to survive the Alien attack by bonding together, how long would it take before we went back to sniping at each other, starting wars, and basically getting back to the way things would before. In a post-Alien Invasion world, I can imagine that our seemingly unending thirst for destruction would be limited only by the amount of survivors there were. If 90% of the world's population was eliminated, it would take quite some time before we were ready to go all-out in our own attempt to destroy all life on the planet.
However, if the total population loss was less than 50%, I imagine that we'd be back at war just as soon as the first crazy person decided to drop a bomb on someone. It's just the way we are. Alas.
