Even Robin never exclaimed something that absurd, yet it's due to become a reality.

It seems that as part of its ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, the Israeli military is planning to develop a "bionic hornet" that would be able to "chase, photograph and kill its targets", to "navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers".

No, really. And they're working on super-powered "bionic man" gloves, too.

It all sounds pretty sci-fi--makes me think of the little miniature flying probes from the Star Wars movies--but the first thing that came to mind when I heard this story is: isn't it strange that Israel, the Holy Land to at least three major world religions, is also the world leader in killing- and security-related technology? That no state is so militaristically locked down, so permanently at war with its surroundings, so fervently focused on creating new ways of killing and torturing people?

Many people will hear such stories and fall into the lock-step thinking of, 'Israel's threatened by terrorists, so they have to protect themselves'. And certainly, if someone is threatening violence on others, they should be stopped (that goes for Presidents too, by the way).

But I can't help thinking that when you're more interested in creating bionic killer wasp-robots and bionic-man gloves than you are in addressing the root causes of violence and tension, that something's gone horribly wrong somewhere--that the situation has reached a new level of getting-off-track-ness.

Through these types of actions, Israel is making the world a darker, stranger, and less natural place--will the world really be a better place with the existence of bionic killer wasp-robots? That all this terrorism and bizarre war-technology is happening in what amounts to the world capitol of religion says a lot to me about humanity's capacity to disregard and destroy the beautiful potential in what it's been given.

So to all the people out there who think that flying killer robots, sonic weaponry, heat rays and lightning guns will make the world of tomorrow safe and happy and devoid of all those nasty dark-skinned bad people...sleep well. And stay the hell away from the rest of us, please.

Labels: Culture