Those that have been so kind to read the few words I post on here, as I am studying quite a bit & the old life thing going on I don’t have too much time to post.
I have found it difficult to put into words what I see politically and globally with what is going on.
Last night I was watching the series by James Burke entitled “The day the universe changed!”
We are back in 1984-1985 and the cold war is still up and running, the threat of nuclear war still looms & the world wonders what the future will hold.
We all know the mission to the moon was a pissing contest between Russia and the United States. With a side mission called scientific discovery. I was about 9 years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon & got to dress up as a spaceman in my class.
When I was in my teens I would read boys books about time and space and the future science will bring. It was exciting and full of hope for the future. Western countries stood for freedom of expression and movement, the idea you can make it if you try! The United States was by far the biggest economy so it was felt the best opportunities were there, not that it was any more free than any other western country.
Russia & China being the opposite of freedom, no freedom of movement and being told what you can and cannot do was not the way for the future of society, if we were to go to space and beyond!
Of course times change and the cold war ended & we left the moon and didn’t go back because we won the contest. The funding for science dropped because funding was never really about the science. Time moves along and technology moves into the mainstream. So there is money to be made, and today we have the web (light & dark). We have access to more info than any humans since the beginning. This was going to be the new dawn of humankind.
But of course the dark side was always possible, and with the availability of knowledge was the availability of crap, social media, fake sites, scams, identity theft, click bait, Fox News!
The Russians discover they can fight a media war because people aren’t equipped to filter, and they don’t know where to get news they can trust.
Trump calls any story he doesn’t like fake news because it doesn’t stroke his ego. News media continue to give time to stupid people to give the impression of being fair. People begin to believe the stupid people because they are getting exposure.
And then there was this!
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM
Before the 1970’s the christian right was part of the rest of the united states, probably just as happy with the moon landing and what science might bring for the future. A baby wasn’t a baby until it was a baby, not today when some consider a few cells to be a baby. But things changed and it may change what was once the bright future of the United States.
For some the multi-diverse idea of society breaks what they consider the mold from their youth. It was a fiction but real enough to them, and they feel it is gone & want to rekindle the past. They have been deceived into thinking it can come back. Society and business moves forward because business in the end wants to make a profit. The old industries are no longer really viable but they have been told the reason is immigrants, unions, the other side selling jobs overseas.
Business did move overseas, but it was purely for profit, and cheap labor. But another reason not mentioned too much was due to technological advances. Now we have people being voted into government who don’t believe in science, who want to make the United States a purely christian country, which goes against freedom of religion. I believe in freedom of religion, you should be able to practice what ever religion you choose. But do not try and impose your religious beliefs on me. If you take away my right to choose, I may as well be living in 1985 Russia or China!
What is happening in the US terrified the hell out of me, every single day. Thank you for writing this, for being a voice for what is real and vital.
You’re right on so many levels here. The anti-intellectual movement will be the death of us all I fear. Great to see a new post from you and such a great one!
Thank you much appreciated.
So much to unpack here, Joe …
The revelation, and it shouldn’t be, that space exploration was about money and not discovery is a blow to my intellectual ego. Of course you’re right about that, as much as I don’t want you to be. We didn’t stop exploring because we learned all we needed to know, we stopped exploring because the profits were elsewhere. Plus, ignorance is bliss and we all know how much Americans love their ignorance.
In the short run, I must say, things appear bleak, but I think in the short run they always do. I’m reading Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now” right now and it sure is nice to see the graphs and statements that, in the long view, humanity does keep getting better and better. It provides a spark of hope, when we need it.
I have long believed that as the advance of science and technology brings the doom and gloom associated with it (take climate change, for example) it will also provide us the solutions we need to evolve. In the long view, I still think we prevail and become more like Star Trek than Mad Max.
Or, at the very worst, more like Firefly. 😉
Great post, Joe. Good to see you write!
Thank you, I appreciate your optimism & wish for the same future as you do. To just get people on the right path, remove the indoctrination that makes people vote against their best interests. Star Trek here we come. 🖖
The hardest thing to do, but I’ll bet ya a lot of it could be solved with better access to high-quality education. I’ll betcha.
Yes that is so important.