Epic Fail On The World Of Tomorrow

Really it should not surprise me that my kids view my childhood as something from the ancient past akin to the discovery of fire, invention of the wheel, or the dark times before the internet when most information was in book form. When I can get them into a library their delicate twenty-first century sensibilities are almost overwhelmed at all the books carefully organized on the shelves with people browsing the aisles hunting some sort of important information. Sadly, both my son and daughter feel that if something cannot be found using the great god Google it more than likely has no relevance to the affairs of daily life. Given his attitude I have never really had much of an opportunity to explain how the simple browsing of book, the leisurely reading of the words, and admiration of the illustrations held so much enjoyment and wonder for me as a child.

Back in 1969 when I was much younger than my children are now I could often found sanctuary in the collection of encyclopedias that occupied an old bookshelf in a corner of my parent’s house. Being from a family of modest means the encyclopedias I refer to were not the expensive Britannica series but the modest “Book of Knowledge” collection that were sold piecemeal at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store. For every twenty-dollar purchase at the grocery store back then you could buy another volume of that year’s edition for about five dollars. While this might seem a strange way of purchasing a set of encyclopedias, I thought nothing of it at the time, especially as I stared in wonder at the section concerning the space program. It was filled with articles on the Brave Russian cosmonauts and the men here in America with the “Right Stuff” riding into the sky in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo  projects were my heroes “boldly going where no one had gone before.”

The summation of that endeavor was achieved forty-three years ago yesterday when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren set foot on the dusty grey plains of a dead world and looked back on the only place that even now we know harbors life. That summer of 1969 was for some reason one of the most vivid I can remember. I guess the energy and wonder of a child allowed such things when at that time. I remember driving the various librarians both at kindergarten and the county libraries crazy demanding new books on what we were doing in space then and what we would be doing in the glorious future.

As much as my home encyclopedias lacked the regal prestige of the more expensive sets they did allow an option to purchase yearly updates that would be shipped straight to a person’s home. The purchase of the update for 1969 was a foregone conclusion for several reasons. However for my grandfather it was mainly to satisfy the desires of a child still ablaze with the most incredible adventure in human history. The update for 1969 naturally came a year later and much to my surprise it had a future timeline of projects NASA wanted to pursue. For a kid already lost in space the illustrations and short explanations of future missions had me more than completely enthralled. Over the coming decades NASA wanted to get the shuttle up and running, a space station built, returning to the moon on a permanent basis, then on to Mars.

Not stopping there as the twenty-first century began would were suppose to see the establishment of bases on Mars serviced by nuclear powered shuttles running routinely between Earth and Mars. At the end of that timeline a couple of decades in the twenty-first century it was further mentioned of manned mission to the outer planets. It was a hopeful future, at least for me, and worthy of the people we were then. However, even during the glory days of Apollo voices could be heard saying that it was unfair to spend billions on space with Earth awash in problems such as poverty, famine, war, and prejudices. It was cheerfully offered by some of those voices that we should clean up our messes here then we would be free to explore. Even being as young as I was as the Apollo program ended my disappointment was tempered by the simplicity of the argument that we had much to do on this planet. Exploring other worlds was of little concern to someone who did not have enough food or water, a decent school, or access to a doctor.

With the anniversary of the lunar module Eagle landing on that barren surface and it set me to wondering not only far along how far we have come on solving the problems we faced back then but also on what sort of people we are now. Despite programs designed during the 60’s and 70’s to correct the problems of poverty and ignorance we have seen the America we were then devolve into a bizarre collection decadent fools on par with those living in the declining years of the Roman Empire. Many in this country these days have enthusiastically embraced a cold contempt for those less fortunate in our society and actively work to permanently prevent certain groups from participating in the democratic process.

It probably should not surprise anyone since American citizenship has been replaced with a concept called American consumerism where we define our lives by cheap imported goods paid for by the credit card whose terms take on the characteristics of a new kind of serfdom. This new serfdom is also personified in a narrow worldview where everyone else is “either for us, or against us.” Given this we completely fail to understand when a portion of the world weary of our pretentious meddling, refuses to go along with our imperial adventures in securing resources and even actively resists our chosen syncopates who cravenly do our bidding.

Feeling once again that our power and prestige should define the way the world works we paint those who disagree into boogeyman, some are very real and evil and others we conveniently imagine, or when desperate create.. Because of such a worldview, we have stumble into numerous quagmires, some physical like ill planned wars and others political and spiritual leaving us distracted and without the willpower to overcome.

So, after forty-three years the world that was supposed to be more fair and equal for all has been more or less permanently postponed. Although, we have sacrificed a large portion of our future for a lifestyle that we cannot support or hope, in the long run, to sustain. Instead of the country that in the 1960's looked to the stars and dreamed of things greater than themselves and expanding the avenues of human potential and experience to as many people as possible we have become a bunch of deluded and hopelessly self indulgent children. We are scared that someone might take what we have here at home and fearful of the perceived shadows lurking overseas. Such a people before long tend to tear themselves apart and are soon relegated to chapters in a history book.