To Serve Man in the War of the Worlds
On Twitter, Tim Pool asks:
How do you think humans would react to learning that not only are we not alone in the universe but that we are actually livestock for a more advanced species
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December 30, 2022
My reply:
Leftists would sigh in happy relief and tell it is good to give our children meekly into their maws. Christians would sigh in weary recognition, unsurprised to be ruled by the principalities, powers, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
For the record, To Serve Man by Damon Knight first appeared in the November 1950 of Galaxy Science Fiction, and was later made into a Twilight Zone episode; whereas WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G. Wells was first serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in 1897.
Muggles always seem to be years and decades late to places science fiction folk pioneered long before.
Of course, the idea of human subjugation as livestock to superior beings dwelling in the darker heavens is older than this. Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians in AD 60, and the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes are even older.
Grim that we are behind enemy lines for on more year of ongoing clashes of arms seen and unseen in battles terrestrial and celestial of the one great cosmic war occasioned by the rebellion of sin.
The good news is that this state of affairs is temporary, or, rather temporal, and we are on the side foreordained eventually to prevail.
The turn of the New Year, a time for optimism, if renewed vows, and new resolutions, is perhaps a fitting hour to reflect on this grim news and this good hope.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
