As I promised yesterday, my thoughts on social justice in space are up at PJMedia.
[Update a few minutes later]
[Mid-morning update]
Mars needs Kirk, not Hofstadter.
But it’s Martin Robbins, not “Roberts.”
19 thoughts on “You Can’t Take The Sky From Me”
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Good piece. Great Firefly ref by Glenn. Can’t seem to link to it but the comment by Francis W. Porretto is spot on.
I followed the link to the old Fox post and at the end it references something called a “web log”. What the heck is that?
There’s a solution to the SJWs on Earth – either ignore them as irrelevant or laugh in their faces. Should some of them actually travel in space, there’s always airlocks…
500 years from now a teacher will be leading a field trip through dilapidated structures adorned with tiny little flags from every country on Earth. The teacher will point at the non-native structures and proclaim them a blight on the environment, a foretelling of endless attacks on the Martian environment that have taken place over the last several hundred years.
A student will ask why none of them have screen doors. Another will ask why none of them have windows and why some are partially buried in the ground. A third will ask why there weren’t any fenced off areas for pets to play in. And another, these students are really inquisitive and ask a lot of questions, will ask why none of the structures have accompanying open air gardens.
The teacher will answer, “Because we hadn’t destroyed Mars’ environment yet. Look around your homes tonight children. Your gardens, pets, or even hamburgers should not exist on this planet. Our very existence is an abomination against nature. Every day we destroy what nature intended for this planet. It is totally unrecognizable from the Mars of 500 years ago when our ancestors marooned us here.”
“How can nature have intentions?” A child will ask. “Detention Jimmy.” replies the teacher.
“What was Mars like before we ruined it?” Asks Sally.
“It was a barren wasteland devoid of life. A glorious place unfit for human existence. An environment so harsh that people had to wear special suits and burrow into the ground to escape the radiation. It was a truly blessed place.”
“And it is ruined because we no longer have to wear protective suits, can breath the air, and no longer have to rely on subsurface dwellings?”
“Sally, this is the third time this week. I am beginning to think that detention has no effect on you.”
“It sure beats pulling weeds in the garden when I tell my parents that we are destroying Mars by turning it into a giant garden.”
They imagine that space settlement will be some sort of U.S. government project over which they will have influence (as usual) beyond their numbers.
Why wouldn’t they think this when articles and comments are dominated by NASA budget talk?
When it comes to economics, people are stuck on stupid (and I hope I get accused of that because I’m prepared to defend my position.) They have these close minded ideas of how it must work; completely ignoring realities of the environment that require adjustments in thinking.
One reality the SJW will face in space is the harsh one that their concerns aren’t going to be on the top of anyone’s list since at first survival itself will be the priority. Second is that colonist funding, until the price comes down, is not coming from the colonists themselves and nobody is going to fund a whiner into space (if they do they can expect the airlock treatment.)
Frankly, SJW concerns aren’t even on my list. Criminal activities will be handled the way they are on frontiers… by the people there.
Ken, why do you say such things? When humanity will turn to a single person for comfort and leadership in the trying times of the future, they will obviously turn to me. So I don’t need to consider any modest an no doubt negligible drawbacks to my infinitely wise plans and schemes. Because I’ll be running the show and everything will be hunky-dory.
I bow to such infinite wisdom… you’re a card!
My observation on all this is that getting to and settling space has generally been a cause that cuts right across the normal US political spectrum, and benefits greatly from that. The occasions when partisan squabbling has intruded have been quite destructive. During the time I’ve been involved I’ve done my damnedest to keep such squabbling out, with some success.
My suggestion in this case: Admit that there is real and unfortunate history involved with “colony” and “manifest destiny”, and avoid using them in public discussions of space settlement. (What, are we so illiterate we can’t properly express ourselves without them?) Rather like you’d avoid showing your pet spider to your aunt who has severe arachnophobia… It’s just common politeness NOT to go out of your way to make her jump and squeal (however entertaining that may be to the nine-year-old in all of us.)
If the hyper-correct types insist on coming after space anyway, OK, yeah, there’s no choice but to fight them. Until then, don’t go out of your way to provoke them, is my advice. No matter how much fun it might be.
If nothing else, picking that fight preemptively risks losing a large amount of effective support from a great number of people in the middle who are entirely smart enough to see who went out of their way to drop that spider in Auntie’s lap.
I agree that “Manifest Destiny” is an unfortunate reference, and I avoid it, and it would be best if Bob Zubrin and his acolytes would do so as well. But even without it, as I noted at the Fox piece years ago, there are some people who will never see us as sufficiently “ethical” to be allowed to infest the rest of the universe.
“to be allowed”
This cuts right to the heart of the matter, doesn’t it? It has nothing to do with space itself. The existence of a frontier – any frontier – scares the hell out of those who want control over other people rather than just minding their own business.
I sense the slave mentality to be strong in these. Use the farce.
Such people are free to think what they want (as are of course we all.)
What I would prefer not happen is that they get excited enough about space in particular to seriously focus their attention on it, instead of the myriad other things they might find to spend their energy on.
In other words, PLEASE stop poking that hornet’s nest with a stick while you’re standing near the rest of us…
What I would prefer not happen is that they get excited enough about space in particular to seriously focus their attention on it, instead of the myriad other things they might find to spend their energy on.
They have no shortage of such things, but it is inevitable that if (for example) there is a congressional/national debate on Dana’s bill, it is going to get their attention, regardless of what little old me does or says. And I would note that I have not been the one drawing their attention to it. That would be much more famous people, such as Elon Musk, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye. Not to mention Dana, once he introduces the bill. I am flattered, though, that you think I have this superpower to invoke that particular Voldemort on my own. 🙂
Consider my note as addressed to ALL the gleeful nine-year-olds of the Right currently poking that particular wasp nest with a stick. Not just you, Rand
Well, I don’t think I’m poking a wasps’ nest. I’m simply pointing out that it exists, so that people can be ready for the inevitable swarm.
Bad analogy. Hornets are a valid and valuable part of our biome. Poking sticks at them doesn’t provide any service (other than educational). SJW’s don’t fit that description. See Sarah’s recent post on noses and fists. When their noses are everywhere (spatially and temporally), “poking sticks” loses any meaning.
When I see hornets in the wild, I steer well clear of them. If they try to build a nest by my house, I take action. So long as the SJWs keep their insanity to themselves, they’re free to demonstrate their stupidity to the world. But when they try to force their crap on me, there will be war.
“PLEASE stop poking that hornet’s nest ”
This is why space cadets should advocate for limiting development of the Moon to the far side.
In other words, PLEASE stop poking that hornet’s nest with a stick while you’re standing near the rest of us.
If humanity was rational enough that your appeal worked, then there wouldn’t be a hornet’s nest to poke. My view on this is there are plenty of hornets out there. And for the most part, they don’t like each other. So if a certain group is interfering with space endeavors, divert them by bringing other groups with contrary opinion into the fray. Then they’ll squander their energy arguing rather than interfering with your projects.
I don’t know if I agree or disagree, a little of both maybe, but it is important to be persuasive when trying to get people to support you or leave you alone.
The idea that what happened when the new world met the old world was some sort of tragedy or the evil of all evils shows a lack of knowledge about history and human nature and is also a little racist.
All human civilizations and cultures took part in conquest, even those in the Americas. All human groups interact with other human groups to gain benefits from the transactions. Had there not been a conquest of the Americas, there would have been cultural and material exchanges. Some natives adopted non-native practices and technologies long before they encountered white people. The adoption of horses and firearms couldn’t be stopped and the adoption of these and other western ways were conscious decisions made to better the lives of their people.
The natives didn’t want to live as the pet tribe of some college professor. They didn’t want to be locked into a primitive way of life for the rest of eternity. They were just like all other humans who see something beneficial from another society and adopt it. To me, it is incredibly racist to suggest that natives can only live a subsistence lifestyle or that the conquest of the Americas was unique in human history.
These people need to be free to make their own decisions about how to live their lives and structure their society, just like the rest of us. There is a movement on the left that is either intentionally or intentionally trying to keep native peoples as pets, locked into a way of life forced on them by activists and government agencies. These populations are then used as weapons against society at large.
These are people not pawns. They deserve self determination and in the USA they already have it should they choose to abandon the leftist power structure that wants to keep them caged until it’s time to trot them out to be sacrificed as pawns in larger political struggles.
A leftist may disagree with my attacks on them but surely they would agree that native and other displaced populations from around the world deserve self determination? The Earth only has so much land. Human populations are fluid and they mix.
We can’t kick everyone off the land they currently live on and send them to their ancestor’s homelands. That would be a never ending challenge and would include kicking native peoples off the land they live on because, this is shocking, they are humans whose ancestors waged war on their neighbors and who also migrated to new locations.
But this is the 21st century. We now have the opportunity to create our own space. We don’t have to take it from someone else. Any group of people can raise the money and engage in the technological effort to design whatever society they want offworld.
Settling offworld shouldn’t be viewed as homo rapiens murdering their way across the cosmos but rather as the great enabler of self determination, cultural growth, economic and technological progress. There is nothing about the color of one’s skin that determines whether or not you can participate.
Do these critics maybe have some racist stereotypes for people who are interested in space? Yes…
The curiosity to explore, the desire to settle new lands, and technological innovation are not “white people” attributes, they are human attributes. The space cadet community is global because it embodies much of what makes humans human. The only thing stopping natives from participating is the people who want to keep them as neolithic pets.
I urge people to put aside their hatred of white people and of the USA, to look beyond their bigotries to see the brighter future that is possible for all humans.