Look up and Look Forward

“Since corrupt people unite amongst themselves to constitute a force, honest people must do the same.”

–Tolstoy’s WAR & PEACE

 

At a historic moment, when the whole world should be watching the gripping and monumental return of  manned flight from US soil (constant coverage on all our networks, not just the SPACE X  and other youtube channels) , aboard a new vehicle for the start of a new age of revamped space flight — too many of us are embroiled in looking down, and back, or not looking at all.

When Man should be taking steps to the stars, toward progress that is monumental, too many of us are captivated instead with old fights and old hates and old thinking, that keeps us here in the 21st century, behaving like we are still in the 19th century.

I do not advocate ignoring the stupidity and challenges foisted on us by bad actors, who are actively engaged with the negative, and the venal and the ignoble.

What I am saying is we must deal with the bigots and venal and un-evolved and psychopathic among us, but not to the point of losing our forward momentum to the backpedaling monsters of our age.

What I am saying is people have died, and we must stem the dying, people have hated and we must stem the hate,  people have abused their positions of trust and power, and we must remove them from those positions. But none of these corrective things do we do, at the cost of looking forward, and thinking forward, and moving forward.

 

There will always be that small mad segment, that wants to do nothing more than throw feces against walls, and breed chaos, rather than calm. We will never move forward allowing ourselves to be led by the gibbering mad. The only way to truly beat such backward thinking, is by actively moving forward.

If we have corrupt individuals we will remove them. Whether that individual calls  himself terrorist or patriot. If we have corrupt officers we will remove them. If we have corrupt organizations we will remove them. If we have corrupt representatives we will remove them. If we have corrupt city-states we will remove them. If we have corrupt nations we will remove them. If we have corrupt mega-corporations, we will remove them.

This is the work of progress.

To move toward a more perfect union,

And too many have fought and bled and die, for this forward momentum, to be swept backward by the mad, and sad, and monumentally stupid.

There is a wonderful book out there (I listened to the audio book) called THE PSYCHOPATH TEST which I highly recommend, and explains a lot about the world outside our door, and points, intriguingly, to real world steps we can take to deal with it.

 

If our law enforcement is blemished by bad actors, we will institute psychopath tests to weed out unstable and caustic elements. The same with our Representatives, or judges or any in positions of public trust.  And we extend this diligence to the citizens, you need to pass psychopath tests to own a weapon. The more weapons, the more tests.

We must take steps to limit the dying, stem the hate, halt the abuse of power

The introduction of commercial space travel–  that opens up the possibility of space flight— to all. But it does more than that, it opens up the possibility on a greater perspective of who we are as individuals, and who we are as a species. A fragile organism on a ball of rock, spinning through the night. Perhaps all alone in the night, but all together in our journey.

 

Look up and look forward.

Currently Watching Coverage of Historic Nasa/Space X Mission!

Been postponed till Saturday due to weather, but boy that was exciting!!!!

 

 

 

 

There was a time in this nation where– when men went into the stars, the whole nation stopped and looked up. I don’t know if the whole nation, whole world is looking up today, (I think the very fact that the corporate owned News Stations in the US, aren’t covering this live –says everything about the lack of value in broadcast television, and the price politics play in news coverage) but I do think (thanks to streaming) we have more people looking at the stars, than we have in many decades. Sometimes — with pandemics and wars and hatreds and corporate malfeasance, it is easy to lose sight of something else, something larger— that we live in wondrous times.

 

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

BEST TV show of the WEEK! National Geographic’s MARS!

“We went into the dark, so that you may find the light.”

—MARS

In the age of streaming there are very few ‘must see now’ shows.

MARS something of a docudrama, science fact/speculative fiction show, courtesy of National Geographic, about a possible future 17 years from today, that is intricately linked to the choices and sacrifices and personalities and visionaries of today.

MARS TV Show

You can argue on some level the show is an elaborate commercial for Elon Musk’s SPACEX. I personally feel that is the argument of cynics and the terminally short-sighted. This is a love letter to space exploration, and more than that, the better angels of our nature.

A nation is defined by the qualities of its dreams and dreamers and preoccupations. Its facts first given birth in its fictions, the zeitgeist of its preoccupations. In the 50s and early 60s we dreamed of the stars, and in the 60s we made those dreams into realities.

That is ever the way. That our occupations of the zeitgeist, our fictions shape our facts. Which is why the proliferation of Zombie and post apocalyptic and serial killer as thematic constants into our fictions, is something I find troubling. We dream of a cannibalistic future, where our worst aspect reign, and our facts follow in lockstep with our fictions. How else to explain a Trump in the Oval Office?

I’m being a little facetious, but my belief in our need for heroic and hopeful fictions to forge a heroic and hopeful future, I am in earnest about.

MARS is the type of show we need more of. STRONGLY recommended! Catch it courtesy of HULU today!

 

Today’s Most Interesting NEWS!

http://news.techeye.net/business/cisco-tells-obama-hands-off-our-routers

Georgia City Sued Over Law Requiring Prescription To Buy Sex Toys

FCC: Basic Cable Prices Increased At Four Times Rate Of Inflation

Here’s Why the Justice Dept. Should Block the Comcast and Time Warner Cable Merger

British Library Putting Hundreds Of Important Literary Resources Online

http://www.slashgear.com/elon-musk-spacex-want-to-move-you-to-mars-for-500000-20329740/

http://www.osnews.com/story/27731/Mozilla_DRM_and_the_challenge_of_serving_users