In case you havent heard, one of America's true heroes (that goes for humanity as well) Neil Armstrong passed away last week. Sad as this might be, and sad that the majority of the country has already moved on from this, the reasoning is sadder. Neil was a figurehead of a generation of people who were motivated by the horrors of war and the desire to make their home the best it possibly could be, going to all lengths and bearing all costs to do so. There was a momentum within the United States that couldnt seem to be broken by anything, be it a flat economy, political assassinations, the outbreak of diseases not known at the time, or international tensions between superpowers. The country had a reason to be great - because it wanted to be, and because it felt that it had to be, there was no other way. If the United States couldnt provide the highest standards of living, education, healthcare, scientific research, and overall human progress on Earth, then we had no point in existing. This is the mantra that was handed to the generations to come.
So what have we done with it? Somewhere along the way, it stagnated. America stopped trying to be the best at everything. It was almost as if we were constantly in a game of one-upsmanship with the rest of the world (mainly the USSR, but others as well) and when we lost our sparring partner in the Soviet Union, we decided to rest on our laurels. During that time, the rest of the world kept going, following the blueprint that the US had laid out for them in the wake of our success. The 90's seemed to be a time of celebration and reflection. The nation could take a collective deep breath after the fall of communism and there was nothing but clear skies ahead. Its just that we forgot one thing - Without competition, progress stops. When progress (or growth) stops, death begins.
Its the same in everything you look at in existence. Once an object or a system or whatever has ended its growing phase, it stagnates and then begins to perish. A rot, so to speak. It seems as if our national psyche has begun to rot, completely hindering progress. Our psyche took a huge blow on 9/11 when we as a nation found out we were not invulnerable to the evils of the world around us. Since then, it seems as if we have been content to play the role of the victim, rather than the hero we once were. We were struck by the world, so we bring war to those who struck us in vengeance and justifiable righteousness. However this militant complex we have seemed to take on to the rest of the world since that moment in time is hiding the fact that we have regressed immeasurably as a country in all walks of human progress. I dare say that the nation we live in today is a nation that the people who got this nation going after WWII would be ashamed of. This is not how we are supposed to be.
People throw all sorts of buzzwords around and think that because what they say sounds like or reads like what the television or news media outlet that they are informed; But too many people just dont care to understand how this system is supposed to work. The concept of America to any common person is supposed to be about progress, unlimited potential, and freedom of self-determination. These ideals do not naturally fit into a finite system such as the Earth, which only has so much room, so many resources, and the like. The men who got behind the space program did so because it was the next logical progression for humankind to make. It was also the next and best logical progression for capitalism to make, because capitalism always needs new markets. So we got on our horses so to speak and used our adventurer's knack to expand into space and begin to figure out whats going on beyond the surface of this planet. Recently though, we have stopped trying to do this. I understand why people would say its pointless to send space missions for research purposes when we have so many problems at home, but that ignores the fact (as so many people have said, and famously in my mind Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said) that it is the exact reason we need to do these things - If we can figure out problems out there, we can make things better at home. From a capitalistic standpoint, expanded space exploration means more industry, more jobs, more cash flow. This cant happen though, if we keep playing the victim.
Man went to the moon for the sake of going to the moon, not because anyone told man to go there. Progress has to be made for its own sake, it cant be reliant on a counterpart to stoke its flames constantly. This is why we have stagnated and faltered as a nation. We have stopped progressing and exploring for its own sake. Too many people are concerned about the means to an end, but dont realize that there should never be an end, just a checkpoint. To say there is an end is to condemn whatever youre speaking of to death.
So how do we fix the United States? How do we get back to where we were a few decades ago stature-wise? We start doing things for their own sake. Take initiative. If we could just stop being so obsessed with the end product of our work, and be more concerned about the quality of our work, so much more could be unlocked for humanity abroad. Men like Neil Armstrong did things like going to the moon because they hadnt been done before. Isnt that reason enough? Is that not what makes life worth having, worth living, worth defending - the ability to do something just because? We need to start taking initiative again for the right things - Science, exploration, technology, etc. If we keep going around in circles like we are today, then the achievements of men like Neil Armstrong will have been for naught, and the great potential that had wound itself up out of that era will be unrealized.
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!