Why Klaatu?

Why Klaatu? Sci-fi buffs will recognize the name; he’s the principle character in an old 1951 movie entitled, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Its premise was that a distant society considered earth’s societies dangerous to the galactic communities, now that both interplanetary travel and nuclear holocaust were possible. This distant society sent Klaatu with a simple message: contain our violence or be destroyed.

The premise is, of course, both simple and absurd. No advanced community threatens another civilization with destruction. No advanced civilization destroys another people. An advanced civilization finds ways to advance life, to promote growth and maturity.

But Klaatu (played by Michael Rennie) did enjoy a unique vantage point—he could observe human behavior without ego, fear, tribal loyalty and hate. So, I hope to make observations and comments from that particular “lunatic fringe”. Of course, viewing without hate and without fear is not lunatic, but it does appear so from within the Cuckoo’s Nest. In so doing perhaps we can laugh at the absurdities, and maybe change some of them.