Since 1940, Alexander Joseph (Lex) Luthor has been the quintessential xenophobic mad scientist and business magnate set on world domination in The DC Comic universe.
Here is a question for you: When did world domination become a good thing?
For the majority of human existence, tribes, nations and empires have sought to prevent conquest and hegemony rather than encourage it. The Pax Romana, the Holy Office of the Inquisition, the Napoleonic Empire, the Pax Britannica, the Third Reich, the Cold War, the Pax Americana-- have all been attempts at world domination in one form or another; and all have been thwarted in one way or another. And these are just the real-life cases of attempted world domination. We won't even dip into the deep lake of fictional characters such as Lex Luthor (above) and more recently Voldemort (from the Harry Potter franchise) who dwell like shadowy nightmares in our collective subconscious, as the embodiment of inherent evil and tyranny.
Suddenly, the idea that our survival and salvation as a species has been tied to a dream of world government; something I call the Star Trek Effect. The reasoning goes this way: That all people are honored and respected on Star Trek, that money is worthless, and that people labor for the good of mankind rather than self enrichment. These are all noble goals, but not even in the fictional universe where they reside are they credible. Does the captain of a star-ship have the same quarters as an engineer's mate? Not likely. And what makes that engineer's mate want to climb into a radioactive reactor core if he gets the same room and board as the captain and a cabin steward? Sign me up for making beds for eight hours a day as a cabin steward please-- and leave fighting Borg and capping cylinders of iridium crystals to those noble suckers who want to serve humanity for the same room and board as a cabin steward.
Somewhere between Brave New World and Star Trek, the idea of an engineered, homogenized utopia has gone from dystopian warning to aspirational dream; and it's very frightening transition indeed. What form would this world government take? And if it went awry, where would you go to escape it?
I picked Lex Luthor for the cover of this commentary because of all the fictional boogeymen who have dwelt in our fertile imaginations, he is the most credible. A brilliant engineer and entrepreneur, who sees world domination through the lens of Economies of Scale. In our own 21st Century, we have several proto Lex Luthors, and they have their eyes set not only on dominating this world, but other worlds as well. We as humans need to consider the cost benefit analysis of this agreement with world domination. Do we really think we'll achieve peaceful coexistence or merely cowed subjugation?
Lex Luthor and his buddies are awaiting your answer.
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