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Essay / Humiliation of humanity through extraterrestrial intervention: an improbable utopia in "Childhood's End"
When the overlords of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End descend upon humanity, humanity is immediately amazed and completely humbled by their scientific and technological prowess. As the Overlords become more active in human society and affairs, their intelligence and sheer ability to easily accomplish all human goals completely humiliate humanity. Humans no longer consider themselves the most capable beings on Earth, as the Overlords seem to surpass humanity in almost every way. Upon encountering the Overlords, humanity is forced to recognize not only that they are not the only force in the universe, but that they are inferior in almost every possible way. This recognition of the inferiority of humanity allows society to evolve and become a utopia. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essayThe first arrival of the Overlords ends the space race as humans realize they can never reach the superior space travel of the Overlords. The Overlords first arrive as the Americans and Germans both attempt to reach space first, but their arrival with their large and amazing ships causes both sides to abandon the race, "...he had lost the race...not by a few". weeks or months he had dreaded, but millennia” (Clarke 7). Reinhold's character immediately recognizes his own technological inferiority as his life's work is completely dismantled in a matter of seconds, "his life's work has been swept away." He had worked to take man to the stars, and in the moment of success, the stars… had come to him” (7). Even aside from recognizing humanity's inferior engineering and science, the arrival of the Overlords forces humanity to realize that it is "no longer alone" (8). This knowledge leads humans to understand that they are not the most important beings in the universe and that all of their accomplishments are minuscule in comparison to what other races have accomplished and can do. When the Overlords begin interacting with humanity, everyone easily recognizes the superior. intelligence of their new neighbors. Karellen's first speech to humanity exudes his pure intelligence, "a superlative genius, demonstrating complete and absolute mastery of human affairs." There can be no doubt that his erudition and virtuosity, his tantalizing insight into as yet untapped knowledge, were deliberately designed to convince humanity that they were in the presence of overwhelming intellectual power” (13). Once humanity recognizes the intellectual superiority of the Overlords, they quickly submit in the hands of their new governors. Even though "local internal governments would still retain their powers...the supreme decisions had passed into human hands" and few people protest this fact because they know that the Overlord can offer the most intelligent and objective solution to any problem. no matter what problem. Thus, Overlords are able to implement policies and help build what humans could never achieve alone: peace and unity among nations. With the end of the war, things like "the Federation of Europe", which was a dream for most, became a reality, and racial discrimination and cruelty to animals ended (12 ). Thanks to the superiority of the Overlords and humanity's decision to humble itself in the face of a race.