We and the Spaceman: an allegory – Preface

We and the Spaceman

1) Many people think that the trouble with the spacemen, the people of other planets, is that they (the spacemen) are people without culture, who want to destroy us. Many people think that the spacemen are dangerous, stupid and ugly, and that they do not understand our great civilization. But the difficulty is the opposite: Those spacemen who have spaceships and who can communicate with other spacemen, and who have the power of television and telepathy…those spacemen know too much, have too much culture, to understand us.

2) The spaceman stands above us, as we stand above a spider: True, we see that it makes its net with good art. But it weaves the net also, if this is not necessary (e.g. when we give food to the spider); and also when the net is without use and without hope. We say: “The spider does all by instinct,” when the spider devours her husband, although much other food is there.

3) In the same way, the spacemen see our high buildings and big bridges and walls and gates. But they see that we build an arch without need, outside a wall: The Arch of Triumph in Paris. The spacemen understand the skyscrapers in Manhattan, on a narrow island. But the Eiffel-tower, and other buildings on a wide plain, have no purpose, and the arrogance of bigness and height seems as animal-instinct to the spaceman. The spaceman cannot understand, why big, wide, and food-rich countries (mutually) make war against each-other. Do they want conquest for food (space) or living space? They have enough! Why war? Animal instinct! Human aggressiveness was needed against the big and dangerous animals of the past. But those animals are now killed and humans are master of the earth.

4) The earthman does all by reason? Why does he put on clothes in summer? How come do the earthmen make love, even if they do not want children? How come do earthmen gather gold, which is never used? We can explain all this to the spaceman, if we can speak his language.

5) What (happens) if the spaceman is more peaceful and better than we? But if he is also more powerful and wiser? Could our arrogance suffer this? Many people cannot stand (suffer) the idea of good spirits in heaven. Many people do not want to believe that there is a God (is). But how could another creature of the material world be better than we?

6) What if the ideas and the shape of the spaceman were unlike ours? What if his mentality seems like a mixture of flower and butterfly? Then we would laugh about the spaceman. Perhaps the spaceman could destroy us, but he wants to help us.

7) “So why does he not help us? If the spaceman would tell us the secrets of space travel, of the cosmic ray, of atomic energy, etc., we would trust him!” The trouble (difficulty) is that the spaceman does not trust us! The earthman used all his own inventions for (to) war and destruction. Thus, the spaceman thinks that we would (also) use inventions, too, (in order) to destroy ourselves and him, the spaceman. The spaceman does not trust a written pact (agreement), as (because) our pacts are not worth (valuable) the paper they are written on. But if a truly enough young people could learn the Language of Space, they would prove to the spaceman that people have enough righteousness and enough power of reason (in order) to understand the spirit of Space.

8) The spaceman cannot learn our languages. The people on this little planet have many hundred languages. Each earth language has (many) hundred thousand words. Their sounds have no comprehensible (understandable) connection with their meanings. The spaceman has no mechanical memory. His Language of Space has only about thirty sounds (words). Because of this, even for us, earth folks, the study of the Language of Space is much easier than any earthly idiom (language). By studying the Language of Space we can prove our good will to many billions of spacemen, and the spaceman will trust us and will explain to us, how to make food from water and air, how to use (power of) solar and atomic energy. We shall not need wars (in order) to survive. Therefore, the spaceman said often in many different ways:
“Teach the Language of Space and Save (preserve) the Peace!”