Who, nuWho and Torchwood, yet again: on maturity and responsibility

And before you look at my wibblings, I would like to recommend pbristow's post here, which is quite short and chimes in with my thoughts in a quite eerie way. At least I think it does.

( Behind here... )

A further thought on the aforegoing

I once imagined Dumbledore saying "It is regrettably true that most if not all of our problems stem from the pervasive misconception that the natural state of humanity is Muggle."

The first opening spiel of Torchwood had them "arming the human race against the future," because the twenty-first century's when everything changes and "you gotta be ready." I highlighted the glaring problem with that in my icon (attached to the previous entry) and in the second season it was duly changed to "fighting for the future on behalf of the human race" and "Torchwood is ready." (EDIT: I should perhaps make it clear on mature consideration that I don't actually believe they changed it because of my LJ icon. I'm sure somebody else must have noticed the disjunct, possibly even someone on the team.)

The first spiel had it right, though, as to what should be done. What Torchwood is fighting for, quite obviously, is to keep the human race insulated from the future, in ignorance of what's going on in the wider universe, in a state of innocence that is obviously untenable in the long term. What they're fighting for is the status quo. Just as the wizards in the Potter saga fight to keep magic hidden from the Muggles, on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to deal with it (unlike such paragons of wizarding virtue as, say, Lucius Malfoy or Peter Pettigrew), so Captain Jack and his team fight to keep humanity from lifting the curtain and looking out of the window at the world that is undeniably there, because they wouldn't be able to deal with it. The fact that, as long as they go on fighting, that state will never of itself change, seems to escape them. The future they are fighting for is one in which, eventually, the wider universe breaks in and finds a human race still completely unprepared.

The natural state of humanity is wizard. The natural state of humanity is awareness. Pretending the strange isn't there will not make it go away, and most humans (if we're honest with ourselves and eschew imagined superiority) know that. Keeping us in this somewhat cut-price garden of Eden will not prepare us for when the wrecking ball arrives.