Loved this one from Andrew Dana Hudson (who is on Mastodon: @AndrewDanaHudson@wandering.shop): Space is Dead. Why Do We Keep Writing About It?
We can still dream of space. But we ought to do it not turning away from what we need to go through - system change - before we go beyond. And system change - if at all possible (I do have my doubts) - start with myth making.
I always get so emotional thinking, dreaming about space exploration. I do have a hard time not thinking about this in “manifest destiny for our species” terms. And maybe it’s still the case. But we need to incorporate the here and now into it, namely the climatecrisis/polycrisis.
The moon landing happened because capitalism and American empire actually had a rival. These forces had to prove they could outrace, outplan, and outspend communism and Soviet empire. It was probably the biggest PR campaign of all time, if you don’t count our bloated military. But such grand flexes are not necessary in our current capitalist realist status quo. When there’s no alternative, who are you trying to impress? I do think we can go to Mars, and beyond, if we want to. But we’d have to decide to do so, collectively and democratically, probably not even as a nation-state but as a species. We’d have to put aside capitalist and nationalist competition. We’d have to take up more pressing moonshots first — decarbonization and climate repair — and then keep that momentum of big public spending flowing. So if you want to write a story about space, that’s where I think it should start. How do we get through the bottleneck of climate collapse and polycrisis, through to a better system that offers more expansive possibilities?
P.S.: There is also a companion short story: The Weather Out There