I saw War of the Worlds last week, which was an utterly dismal experience. The genocidal alien invasion was bad enough, but what was really depressing was the human response to it. Eradicate our modern conveniences, throw in a dash uncertainty, and our intrinsic animal nature starts running the show. When has this not been the case?

Rush Limbo would say this proves I am liberal, that I would criticize the extreme human reaction to an extraterrestrial attack. When it comes to the War on Tera™, I must be one of the Blame America First crowd. Maybe I would like to give the terrorists and evil aliens hugs and group therapy.

But it would be foolish to blame people for acting like animals when we are animals. Liberals and conservatives are merely averse to different aspects of our primitive nature, one group disliking violence, the fight-or-flight response, and social Darwinism, and the other being positively terrified by anything having to do with sex. The rest of the debate boils down to disagreement over the societal conventions, rituals, and laws that have arisen around these evolutionary bugaboos. War of the Worlds is about what happens when these conventions, rituals, and laws are eradicated—rendered utterly ludicrous—in one fell swoop. The War on Tera™, the Culture War™, and whatever other pointless battles are raging out there will only achieve the same thing more gradually.

As a society, we have a real chance to rise above our primitive selves, to leave behind the cruelty and superstitions of past centuries in a way that will make all of us stronger, safer, and more comfortable. Unfortunately, there will always be those elements that are determined to drag us back into the muck.

(This one’s for you, terrorists. This one’s for you, George W. Bush. This one’s for you, evil Martians. Can’t you all go destroy each other somewhere else and leave the rest of us in peace?)

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More Goblin songs tomorrow.