Simon was in his garden pegging out his daily washing, admiring the sun. It wasn't a warm day, but the sun was out nonetheless and daffodils that lined his garden were beginning to bloom; a sure sign of the burgeoning of spring he thought. His neighbour came out into her garden and Simon gave her a wave, she replied back with a ‘good morning’ and carried on with what she was doing. Simon picked up a brilliant white bed sheet to peg up and just as he did a brilliant light swarmed him, like the sun had exploded. He fell to his knees, his hand shielding his eyes. He tried to shout to his neighbour, but it was like the light muffled his words as well.
As he finally took his hand away from his eyes, the light had gone and he was still in his garden, but it felt different somehow. Just as he was coming to his feet he heard a voice, a quiet voice, almost a whisper. ‘Simon of the place UK?’. Still in a daze he didn't respond, but the voice came to him again, ‘Simon of the place UK?’. He rubbed his eyes to try and see where the voice was coming from, but all he could make out in the haze of his eyes was a small figure about the size of a 10 year old child. ‘Simon of the place UK?’ the voice called again, this time Simon replied, ‘Yes my name is Simon’. For a moment there was a silence and Simon thought maybe this was heaven and he had died. ‘Ahhh good you understand me, language calibrations are correct. Simon of the place UK; I am from a far away place in what you call the universe. I am here to learn about your species and culture. We would be grateful if you could answer our questions for us’.
Taken aback Simon says ‘You want me to take you to our Prime Minister?’.
‘What's a Prime Minister?’ the alien replied.
‘Errr, they are kind of the leader for the UK’
‘So they speak for all of the UK?’ The alien said, looking confused.
‘No, they speak for the government who tell us what we can and can't do’
‘So a Government is a collection of people?’
‘Yes, they get together and decide what taxes we pay and what laws we have to follow’ Simon said confident in his answer.
‘So this collection of people, they are the cleverest then and what are laws and taxes?’
‘Errrr no, not the cleverest. Laws are rules we have to follow and taxes are what we pay to fund public services like the police and military. Also to pay for the government.’ Simon replied in a not as confident manner.
‘What's a police and a military?’
‘Well a police is a force of people who ensure we follow the laws made by government and a military is a force that fights wars against other governments’
‘So, you pay the government to make laws and then also pay them to make sure you follow the rules. What happens if you don't?’
‘Don't follow the rules you mean?’
‘Yes’
By this time Simon was becoming a bit fatigued and wondered why these creatures had chosen him, but continued on nonetheless. ‘Well the police will come for you and you may end up in prison…’ Simon already knew what was coming next and anticipated it, ‘and a prison is place where you are locked in a room and lose your freedom’
The alien looked utterly confused, ‘So what is a military then?’
‘A military is like a police force except they go to war against other governments’
‘So they put other governments in prison?’
‘No, not quite. They will kill the soldiers of that country and sometimes kill the government of that country’
‘So you can kill the government then as well?’
‘Absolutely not, that would be murder and I would be sent to prison’ Simon quickly replied.
‘But another government can kill you and that is ok?’
‘Well that…’ Simon thought for a moment, ‘Well that would be murder, but you can't put the government in prison’ Not knowing what else to say.
‘But I’m confused, you pay the government to make rules that you have to follow and if you dont you get locked in a room. Then you pay for the government to go and murder other people, but if you did that you would be locked in a room or murdered. So why don't you stop paying?’
Simon realised either he had given a bad explanation or hadn't broken it down in such a simple way before, all he could do was answer honestly. ‘Because if we didn't pay that would be breaking the law and we would be locked in room’
The alien paused for a moment and Simon thought maybe the alien finally understood, but then the alien spoke, ‘So you pay people like you so that they don't have to follow the rules they create, murder whom they want and take your freedom away if you don't like that fact and refuse to pay for it’
Simon, looking a little broken now, simply replied ‘Yes’. The alien looked down at a device resembling a mobile phone for a moment and then spoke for the last time, ‘Simon of the UK, thank you for this conversation we have all we need now. This will be the last time our species will meet, it seems you are far too primitive for interaction with us. We will destroy the limited interstellar technology you currently have ensuring you can never find us and never find us. We wish you good luck’. And with that there was another flash of light, this time green in colour and Simon found himself in the familiar surroundings of his garden, the washing he had in his hand returned to his hands again.
I returned to the story format for this one and in keeping with current trends an alien seemed the most logical choice. It is interesting to think about how an external visitor might be able to see-through the mist of nonsense said about the need for dominion over other humans; in a similar way a child is able to break something down to its core components thereby exposing the silliness in it. Whether intentional or not, the conversations we all revolve around one particular issue, medical freedom, illegal wars, financial corruption, abuses of power etc…. but we consistently avoid the common denominator, the need for one very small collective of humans (government) to have absolute dominion over the rest of us (millions of us).