38 years ago today: Was Neil Armstrong wrong about mankind?
Fri Jul 20, 2007 at 10:02:02 AM PDT
It happened 38 year ago – July 20, 1969. It was one of those moments in time where you remember exactly where you were when it happened. I myself was 11 years old at the time, living with my family in a trailer park in Boulder, Colorado. I remember the broadcast starting early in the afternoon and lasting until late at night, with a few breaks off and on in between. My family watched it mostly on CBS with Walter Cronkite on our crummy old black & white TVs with rabbit ears. You could also watch it with David Brinkley on NBC or Frank Reynolds on ABC. There was nothing else on.
It started with the long, slow, agonizing descent of the Lunar Earth Module (LEM) onto the surface of the Moon - "The Eagle has landed". Then, after what seemed like hours of technical analysis, the astronauts opened the hatch, and Neil Armstrong got out and went down the ladder putting his left foot on the moon - "One small step for a man, One giant leap for mankind". See Apollo 11 videos from NASA
What did Neil Armstrong’s "One giant leap for mankind" really mean?
It seemed like a paradigm shift at the time. It seemed to mean that Human Civilization was finally going to grow out of its Neanderthal "cradle" and advance to a higher level. All those centuries of primitive tribal customs like wars and saber rattling and superstitious stone age beliefs were going to fade out of existence and be replaced by a new wisdom and compassion and sense of higher purpose. Granted, the whole space program was started because of our fear of a Russian "Communist Moon". The Vietnam War was also still going on at that time, along with the Civil Rights Movement, and the Cold War. There was plenty of poverty in the world. And there was that pesky nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.
We might yet completely obliterate the planet with nuclear MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). But we also had hope, from visionaries of the future like Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Gene Roddenberry, Arthur C. Clark and others, who told us that we had potential, and if we could just hang on and get past all this self-destructive, primitive behavior, we could get into the next century, and advance to a higher level. We really had the capability of eliminating the majority of human suffering on Earth. The technology was already there. All we needed was the wisdom and maturity to follow it up. The world could be a much better, more peaceful and prosperous place. We could finally reach a harmony with the Earth.
Apparently we just couldn’t get past those primitive tribal customs.
The last part of the Apollo program was cancelled and most of NASA’s money was cut because many people complained that the money could be better spent at home. Liberals said it should be used for social programs; to end poverty, upgrade the schools, rebuild the inner cities, and provide better medical care for all. Conservatives wanted to cut government spending and taxes and build a strong national defense. In the 38 years since the first Moon landing we elected Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 into the White House. That’s a total of 12 years for the Democrats and 26 years for Republicans in office since 1969. Has the world gotten significantly better since then? Conservatives would probably argue, but it’s the conservative agenda that finally won. I see several major conservative shifts in American policy affecting NASA (and other areas of society) since 1969:
- Reagan’s corporate "welfare" defense programs
The Space-Industrial-Complex didn’t go away – most of it was transferred over to become part of the Military-Industrial-Complex. Billions of dollars were initially cut from NASA for several years, and then when Reagan took over, he basically turned most of that industry over to the Pentagon for National Defense. Many scientists and technologists went over to the military. Instead of building rockets to go to the Moon and beyond, the Military-Industrial-Complex grew larger and built rockets to carry nuclear missiles. Billions and billions of dollars poured into highly advanced killing machines of all sorts - supersonic jets, huge aircraft carriers, laser-guided weapons and missiles and gadgets of all kinds. Even after now, long after the Cold War has ended, defense contracts continue to be churned out at an incredible rate, with advanced weapon systems being designed with no real enemy in mind (unless we are we are expecting invaders from Mars someday). Maybe Bin Laden has an advanced Air Force or Navy hiding somewhere.
A better word here might be consumerism. It’s that obsession that most Americans have now to become personally rich and buy lots of "things" that they don’t really need. Conspicuous consumption, luxuries and bling. You can’t be happy unless you have giant house, big SUV, and lots of "things". It’s a part of American conservative mythology that anyone can become rich, if they just try hard enough. Conversely, if you are poor, it means you are lazy and it’s your own fault. You deserve to starve. Selfishness and greed are good for the economy. Altruism toward the less fortunate is bad - socialism – close to communism. Capitalism = Patriotism.
There was once a time in America when the pursuit of money and individual consumerism was not the whole purpose of life. I remember it. I remember spending about 4 months with friends, hitchhiking to California, with all my most valuable possessions in nothing but a backpack. I was happy. I sometimes wonder if I was happier then, than I am now with all my "things". There was once an idea called "The Common Good". It’s a subversive concept that conservatives have been trying to kill off for years now – the idea that you should take care of the environment and your fellow human beings, even if there’s no profit in it. Even the poorest members of a society deserve to have food, housing, education, and healthcare. Compassion for your neighbors. The environment is more important that the economy. Work together as a society to build a better future. As I said, a subversive idea, more dangerous than terrorism.
- Anti-science, anti-intellectualism, anti-environmentalism
Most Americans can’t find Iraq on a map. 69% of Americans don't know who the Vice President is. According to polls, about 47% of Americans believe that the Earth was created in less than 6,000 years. Humans are the center of the Universe because God said so. It’s written in The Bible. The only education children really need is taught in religious studies classes. Apparently the only purpose of science and technology is to design and build better bombs and weapons systems in order to kill more "enemies of freedom". Humans are superior beings (in the image of God), and therefore we have the right to dominate and use up the Earth as we see fit. It doesn’t matter what happens to the Earth in the end because the Rapture is coming and it’ll all be destroyed anyway.
Earthrise, 1968 December 24 taken by William Anders during Apollo 8
Is this picture worth the billions of dollars we paid for it?
The Apollo program cost $22.7 billion over 13 years in the 1960s-70s, which comes out to be about $136 billion total in today’s dollars. Putting it into perspective, it is roughly equivalent to the cost of about 1 year, 4 months in Iraq, minus the dead bodies and permanently wounded and disabled veterans.
The current NASA budget is approximately $17 billion (equivalent to what we spend for about 2 months in Iraq). People still complain about spending the money. NASA’s entire budget is less than taxpayers pay to many private corporations. Just as a budget comparison, I found these figures:
KBR received a $22.5 billion contract for logistical support in Iraq including supplying gasoline, food services, and housing and various morale and recreation services.
Lockheed Martin received military contracts (in 2005) worth $19.4 billion for many military programs including
F-16, F/A-22 jet fighter, F-117 stealth attack fighters, Hellfire and Javelin missiles, as well as various nuclear weapons. They also produce the PAC-3 Patriot missile, which cost $91 million per copy.
Boeing received military contracts (in 2005) worth $18.3 billion for the F-22 Raptor, the Joint Strike Fighter/F-35, the F-18, F-15 fighter and Apache helicopters. Boeing also have contracts for many of the Pentagon’s missile defense programs, including guidance systems for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles and munitions such as the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER).
Will the Moon Landing be humanity’s greatest achievement, never to be surpassed? Or will it be humanity’s swan song?
According to the Olduvai theory of Industrial Civilization, we are headed for a Post-Industrial Stone Age. Our entire civilization had been built on cheap, abundant energy: coal, natural gas, and especially petroleum. Unsustainable. Once we find and consume the last reserves, there's no way we will be able to advance our civilization. Space exploration will be a dream of the past. We might be able to manage something like early 18th Century civilization, with wind and solar power, and human labor. That's only if we haven’t destroyed the Earth’s ecosystems and biosphere with global warming.
If a colony of today’s humanity was discovered in a Petri dish, the report back from the lab would be - malignancy. Diagnosis of the patient – cancer. The living Earth (Gaia) has a cancer. Humanity on the Earth has metastasized out of control, and is spreading, and devouring everything in it’s path. It is using up Earth’s resources and dumping toxic wastes everywhere. It’s clogging and poisoning the Earth’s arterial waterways and oceans killing off the non-human sea creatures and cutting down the forest-lungs of the Earth at an alarming rate. Now the Earth has a fever. The prognosis for the planet-patient is not so good.
Your attention please. This is your pilot. We have now reached the evolutionary peak of our species’ journey into the Universe and will now begin our descent. Please turn off all electronic devices and put your folding trays and seats into their fully upright position. Fasten your seat belts and be prepared for a hard landing. We might have just enough fuel left to make it back to the airport...
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