Traveling Miles
"Do we really want to go to Mars?" Cassandra Wilson asks in her song Right Here, Right Now, "Do we really want to try?"
You know how in science fiction when aliens come to earth they only want one of two things? They either want to share their knowledge and superior technology with us in the benevolent spirit of universal fraternity, or they want to conquer the planet and harvest its natural resources.
The verse continues, "I've got a feeling if we get up there, gonna stop and wonder why."
Western civilization has made it a matter of course to conquer "New Worlds" and exploit whatever resources are found there. Columbus and his successors were not simply adventurous explorers; they were conquerors and that spirit of conquest remains very much with us today.
Is it simply our goal to explore space? To discover whatever can be learned about our fascinating celestial neighbors and then leave them simply to twirl in their orbits? Or will we seek in them some utility that serves our own purposes? If there is life in the universe it is likely we are very far from encountering it, but perhaps we will be or have already become that highly advanced civilization of invaders seeking new worlds to conquer.
"Don't you want to be right here, right now?" the chorus asks.
Besides, what better place is there for a human being than on earth? That's not to say we shouldn't pursue exploration for the sake of discovery and knowledge, but the suggestion that any humans should one day take up residence beyond our sphere I find to be... well, disappointing.
We have an ailing planet and a suffering population. Our problems are however, not beyond repair. With genuine and collective action we could begin to fix some of the probems that confront us. And we must, because they are ultimately inescapable. Whatever social dysfunctions plague us now on earth will follow us into the future here or anywhere we may venture.
|