Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!decwrl!glacier!oliveb!oliven!barb From: barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) Newsgroups: net.space,net.columbia Subject: Re: Scuttle the Space Program? Message-ID: <518@oliven.UUCP> Date: Thu, 20-Feb-86 19:49:27 EST Article-I.D.: oliven.518 Posted: Thu Feb 20 19:49:27 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 06:16:47 EST References: <661@tekigm.UUCP> <158@axiom.UUCP> <932@nmtvax.UUCP> <1866@jhunix.UUCP> Reply-To: barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca Lines: 226 Keywords: the questions should be so simple Xref: linus net.space:4473 net.columbia:2023 In article <932@nmtvax.UUCP> fine@nmtvax.UUCP (Andrew J Fine) writes: >I, personally, am in full support of the Shuttle, the Space Program, and >the exploration and exploit[at]ion of space, and it's eventual population by >humanity. BUT NOBODY HAS EVER ASKED US THESE QUESTIONS, NOBODY HAS EVER >CHALLENGED US TO QUESTION OURSELVES! Nobody? I wrestle with angels -- and thus with my own soul -- a great deal. I have come to the realization that we humans are a two-edged blade, with as much capacity for GOOD as for NOT-GOOD ("Evil" is overused). Andrew makes a lot of blanket statements, but then he's propounding an extreme position -- which is not *necessarily* his own (can't put words in your mouth, Andrew, but your disclaimer quoted above gives a hint). I don't like blanket statements because I'm a believer in situations. And situations are never as simple as generalities. For example, I feel badly for the famine stricken in Ethiopia -- but it's going to take more than money to save them. Sending them $Mil.s of dollars and food *is* *not* going to resolve a situation caused by, greatly, overgrazing. It's much the same problem as plagues the coral reefs of the Caribbean -- advances in technology without the lessons for using them wisely (a good example of this premise is the Star Trek episode *Where No Man Has Gone Before*, a character 'instantly' given the powers of a "god" without going through the eons of evolutionary lessons that should accompany such power). But I digress into subjects best left for other news-groups. I support the Space Program IN THE FACE of Andrew's examples, because, for one, the SPACE PROGRAM has helped us diagnose the blight of technology/advance/ (to use Andrew's word) EXPLOITATION without conscience -- and it *may* help find the ANSWERS to repair the damage *and* in the same breath *alleviate* the poverty (by discovering new resources, teaching us to better use the ones we have, etc.). As for our environmental morals, from space there are no boundaries, the Earth is One. We *need* to understand that. When one man (excuse me) pisses in the ocean, he must realize that it affects the ecosystem of the world -- and, in the light of this, there may result a new Imperialism of ENFORCED RESPONSIBILITY. Again, I digress. >So what do space-faring nations prove when they invoke national prestige and >the desire of humanity to expand, by consuming all that money and >men-centuries? "I'm rich enough to do this and you're not, so there!". It is only elitism if we kept the information to ourselves. At least superficially, the Space Ventures (save military, which is another dimension entirely) have been operating in an *attitude* (I cannot speak for the *reality*) of shared knowledge. >One man's wealth is another man's poverty. One man's livelihood >is another man's serfdom.... O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. . . . [Two Gentlemen of Verona] >Why have satellites and information systems at all, except to invade the >privacy and keep records on a captive populace? Or, as another poster said, to *free* a 'captive' populace. Nothing binds so much as ignorance. There was a lot of resistance to putting the Bible in the hands of the 'Common Folk' -- heaven forbid we should be allowed to think and interpret for ourselves! >The main problem with all of us is we are still essentially barbarians at >heart. The Viking who was the explorer was also the Viking that also raped >and pillaged. Or was it the Vikings that followed in his steps? See below. >The Columbus who was the explorer was also the Columbus who >converted people to his religion by force. The shuttle pilot who was the >explorer was also the pilot who killed husbands, wives, and children in >North Korea and North Vietnam. [Although he did not kill in the performance of his duty as a shuttle pilot -- bad example, he was *not* "exploring" ('conquering new frontiers') in Korea and Vietnam.] I will admit, I am a hunter -- note my canine teeth for tearing meat. But I also harken to the dictates of Reason. I would describe myself as a Warrior-Healer -- the power of destruction and creation, with the ability to CHOOSE my path between them. [Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes). -- Walt Whitman] I am not ashamed of what I am -- and I will not be shackled by past injustice, so long as I have learned enough to breed RESPONSIBILITY toward (and of) myself, my actions, and fellow travellers (animate and inanimate) in Creation. YES there has been exploitation in the past! A shameful lot of it! Does that mean there HAS to be exploitation in the Future? Am I to refrain from walking because I might take a misstep? Not if I LEARNED from the last time I tripped. But have we LEARNED? THAT is the question to ask. And those of us who HAVE "learned" should nip at the heels, like unresting sheepdogs, of those who haven't. (No matter *how* the "rams" may bruise us!) (;-) >The wanderlust we all experience is just >another word for the lust and coveting for the outside world that blinds >us to the potentials of the inside world and the darkness of the soul that >we need to correct. Can I not merge the inside AND outside worlds? Why should one be "enough"? In me is both artist and scientist -- should I forsake one for the other? Can I be Whole if I do? Why should I limit myself? The following are the lines that *really* bother me: >If humanity can simply change from mere descendants of carnivorous apes to >something totally gentle, altrustic, and noble, then Earth will be enough. >We only try to escape the Earth because we try to escape our own natures. Escape? Or Embrace? The first "man" out of the trees was no doubt cajoled as a fool by his/her fellows in the branches -- and we might have been 'better' if we'd stayed in the trees (not that I think so). But the question is moot -- we didn't, and we've survived through (and perhaps by) our curiosity, our constant quest to KNOW MORE!!!! Excuse me, I've digressed more than I intended, the risk of writing of subjects felt so strongly -- the original purpose of this posting was (and remains) to put forth the nature of "The Explorer" in words rather more accomplished than my own. Yes, the Explorer could be seen as a creature without conscience, opening the way for the exploiters and slavers. I do not make excuses here -- either for the Explorer or Kipling's overlay of Empire- philosophy. Each step forward is both good and bad -- every light casts a shadow. WE have the troubling power of *choice*, Free Will some call it. And we *will* wield that power for BOTH good and ill -- like it or not, it is our nature, which may or may not be changing, and varies from individual to individual. But enough of this preamble. With your permission, _The Explorer_, by Rudyard Kipling. Barb THE EXPLORER -- Ruyard Kipling 1898 "There's no sense in going further -- it's the edge of cultivation," So they said, and I believed it -- broke my land and sowed my crop -- Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop: Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated -- so: "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges -- "Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" So I went, worn out of patience; never told my nearest neighbours -- Stole away with pack and ponies -- left 'em drinking in the town; And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to help my labours As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down. March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning flanks and dodging shoulders, Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of grass; Till I camped above the tree-line -- drifted snow and naked boulders -- Felt free air astir to windward -- knew I'd stumbled on the Pass. 'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me -- Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies; so I called the camp Despair (It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my Whisper waked to hound me: -- "Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!" Then I knew, the while I doubted -- knew His Hand was certain o're me. Still -- it might be self-delusion -- scores of better men had died -- I could reach the township living, but . . . He knows what terror tore me . . . But I didn't . . . but I didn't. I went down the other side. Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes, And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by; But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows, And I dropped again on desert-blasted earth, and blasting sky. . . . I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by 'em; I remember seeing faces, hearing voices, through the smoke; I remember they were fancy -- for I threw a stone to try 'em. "Something lost behind the Ranges" was the only word they spoke. I remember going crazy. I remember that I knew it When I heard myself hallooing to the funny folk I saw. 'Very full of dreams that desert, but my two legs took me through it . . . And I used to watch 'em moving with the toes all black and raw. But at last the country altered -- White Man's country past disputing -- Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind -- There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting. Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find. Thence I ran my first rough survey -- chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em -- Week by week I pried and sampled -- week by week my findings grew. Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom! But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two! Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair-poised snowslide shivers -- Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains, Till I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers, And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains! 'Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em; Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour; Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em -- Saw the plant to feed a people -- up and waiting for the power! Well I know who'll take the credit -- all the clever chaps that followed -- Came, a dozen men together -- never knew my desert-fears; Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water-holes I'd hollowed. They'll go back and do the talking. *They'll* be called the Pioneers! They will find my sites of townships -- not the cities that I set there. They will rediscover rivers -- not my rivers heard at night. By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there, By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright. Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre? Have I kept one single nugget -- (barring samples)? No, not I! Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker. But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy. Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water-transit sure and steady (That should keep the railway-rates down), coal and iron at your doors. God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready, Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours! Yes, your "Never-never country" -- yes, your "edge of cultivation" And "no sense in going further" -- till I crossed the range to see. God forgive me! No, *I* didn't. It's God's present to our nation. Anybody might have found it, but -- His Whisper came to Me!