Due to 'Earth privilege' you may be interpreting the recent spate of asteroid stories in the wrong way. Our biased, Earth-centric media tends to portray the asteroids as the danger, when it is obvious that it is the other way round. Just the other day, one unfortunate interplanetary object, innocently following its predetermined elliptical orbit around the Solar System, was smashed to cosmic dust by the Earth straying into its path.
Earth privilege (or "human-hosting planet privilege," as progressive astrophysicists occasionally term it) refers to advantages that a certain astronomical object obtains in media and cultural discourse beyond those commonly experienced by other astronomical objects.
The term connotes both obvious and less obvious unspoken advantages that the Earth and the people who live here may not recognize they have. This distinguishes it from overt hatred and prejudice against asteroids and meteorites that was common in earlier ages, when innocent comets were routinely blamed for plagues, famines, earthquakes, and invasions by the Mongols.
Thankfully, we have moved beyond such crass 'astrologism,' but the problem of Earth privilege, as these recent stories reveal, remains a constant and indelible stain upon our moral character.
Only by ensuring absolute astronomical equality can we make amends for several billion years of Earth privilege. As with overcoming White privilege and male privilege, the way forward is to deconstruct the social or, in this case, astronomical construct. This can best be achieved by dismantling the offending astronomical object into several million smaller pieces, possibly through a massive nuclear explosion. In this way, we can make enormous strides towards the final, absolute equality that will ultimately only be achieved with the heat-death of the universe.
Earth privilege (or "human-hosting planet privilege," as progressive astrophysicists occasionally term it) refers to advantages that a certain astronomical object obtains in media and cultural discourse beyond those commonly experienced by other astronomical objects.
The term connotes both obvious and less obvious unspoken advantages that the Earth and the people who live here may not recognize they have. This distinguishes it from overt hatred and prejudice against asteroids and meteorites that was common in earlier ages, when innocent comets were routinely blamed for plagues, famines, earthquakes, and invasions by the Mongols.
Thankfully, we have moved beyond such crass 'astrologism,' but the problem of Earth privilege, as these recent stories reveal, remains a constant and indelible stain upon our moral character.
Only by ensuring absolute astronomical equality can we make amends for several billion years of Earth privilege. As with overcoming White privilege and male privilege, the way forward is to deconstruct the social or, in this case, astronomical construct. This can best be achieved by dismantling the offending astronomical object into several million smaller pieces, possibly through a massive nuclear explosion. In this way, we can make enormous strides towards the final, absolute equality that will ultimately only be achieved with the heat-death of the universe.
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