It seems, these days, that everyone on the leisure-class side of this planet – meaning, everybody who can afford such things – wants to be someone else. Men yearn to be women, women men, black white and white black, etc. We have transgenderism, transracialism, even transspecism. I'm not criticising: who am I to question another's existential crisis? I do not feel competent to judge, nor to decide that while one person's identity crisis is acceptable to society, another's is not. What business is it of mine? I will cheerfully accept other people on their own terms, even when they fail to return the favour. Courtesy demands no less. Besides, they have their reasons, which they don't have to explain to me or anybody else.

But after watching The Rachel Divide, a sympathetic documentary about the personal journey of Rachel Dolezal, I figured out something. A great deal of the population feels otherwise. People can't just up and reinvent themselves without group permission. To get to do that, you need to apply to the Opinion Police. And whether you get a permit to be who you think you are depends a lot on the current fads in thinking. Since I don't see a lot of real thinking going on here, it makes me angry, because I don't like to see other people get hurt.

So I want to propose something. Let's all declare a radical break from Western civilisation and its identity politics. Let's declare our own identity and opt out. I checked, and 'transhuman' is taken up by the conceited people who want to use technology to live forever. Yuck. 'Transpecies' belongs to those who secretly believe they're other animals – dragons and cats seem to be top of the list. I've run out of 'trans-' terms, unless somebody can help me out here. So I'm going to suggest we all join a different club.

Aliens.

I have long felt (you will pardon the expression) alienated from the developments of modern society. Some days, it just feels as if we're in a dystopian novel written by some author who has no better plot idea than reductio ad absurdum. I'm tired of it. I also can't relate to a politics of identity that privileges some groups, while leaving others in the cold. What's that all about? Either treat everybody with respect, or let it alone. Over time, I've learned to take a distanced view of humanity. As in, 'This is the sort of thing you Earth People enjoy doing, is it? I ask merely for information.'

And like a man with a tiger outside his gate

He not only couldn't relax, but he couldn't relate…

Neil Diamond, 'Crunchy Granola Suite'

Yeah, like that. So, like many others, I have undergone a gradual shift in my personal sense of identity. I don't feel human anymore. Why? Because the going definition of 'human' in Western culture in no way approximates a view of the role of individual or group consciousness on this planet that I can identify with in any way, shape, or form. I don't feel that what's going on around me corresponds to anything that's going on inside me. That is pretty much the definition of an identity crisis.

I propose we show solidarity with all the other people out there who are struggling to figure out who or what they are in a world gone mad. Let's declare ourselves to be Aliens. We refuse to accept the normativity of this herd behaviour. We will redefine what it is to be sentient beings: Aliens, if you will. We will do it by defining what makes us different from Humans.

Aliens:

• Don't believe in 'everyone for himself'. We believe in 'each one reach one'. Aliens take care of each other.
• Don't believe in races. There is no 'race', a Human term. There is only the Species. Sentience determines the Species.
• Don't care about gender. Aliens come in many genders. This is not a problem for a civilised star system to be worrying about.
• Don't live in the Twitter moment. Like the Doctor, Aliens walk in eternity. If what's going on is potentially bad for future generations, we don't do it. This goes for everything from climate change to wrecking our universities.

The motto of Aliens is, 'No one is Other!' That means we do not exclude. We include. Are you weird? Says who? No one is too weird for us. Show consideration for your neighbour, and you will be a neighbour, too. 'No one is Other!' means we leave no soul behind. All are welcome in our spaceships.

So what say you? Are you ready to declare yourself an Alien in a good cause?

Dmitri Gheorgheni

21.05.18 Front Page

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