Friday, June 26, 2020

The appalachian conundrum

We are not living through unprecedented times. Yet, like any other generation we sure do feel so. The ongoing covid-19 epidemic, death of George Floyd, earthquakes and locusts might seem to make the times unprecedented. Let us be assured, the human race has seen much worse and survived to become better. The Spanish flu and Slavery are both thankfully in the past. So one can hope that the pandemic and racism will look like distant past at some point. Unfortunately, now it is not that time yet.

Discrimination against Appalachian people is thought to be real enough to have resulted in the enactment of laws in Cincinnati. Just to clarify, the term Appalachian is not applied to native Americans these days, but rather to Ulster-Scot migrants to the US that have settled in the Appalachian region. Vast majority of these people are white and the potentially derogatory term "redneck" is also used to describe this group which remains mired in poverty. This brings me to the Appalachian Conundrum. It is stated as follows:

Imagine a world, far far away if you will. A tiny planet orbiting a giant start much like our earth and sun. Let us call this planet parth. Parth unlike earth is inhabited by many primate like species that look extremely similar, can all communicate in a common language and have the ability to think. The Conundrum is how would these groups on Parth behave?

Will some species conquer the world and subjugate the others? Would there be a war for resources or dominance? Is it possible for only one species to survive through the strife? Can these species co-exist and cooperate to build a better world? How would this co-existence work? Which groups would make up a greater share of the population on parth? Would there be socio-economic disparities between groups?

These are tough questions to answer. May be an episode of start trek will solve this conundrum for us.