Cynical Cycle
The least cynical act of the 20th
Century was the first human step on another world: one pure, unmistakable,
irrefutable act of human progress. It
was also the most cynical. This
grandest of gestures was done for the pettiest of reasons: vanity, jealousy
over Russian achievements in space, an obsessive need to beat the other
guy. The great step "for all
mankind" was driven and supported by the greatest threat to mankind:
nationalism.
It is debatable whether human
progress has even broken even in the 20th Century. The enlightened, progressive, forward-thinking world of the late
19th Century sank deeply and rapidly in the mire of 20th Century gloom. Where liberal religion flourished last
century, reactionary religion has won center stage in this one. Old guard Western religions lend moral
support to social injustice.
Contract-killing ayatollahs plummet backwards through time and do their
best to drag the world back with them.
Worst of all, have been the secular
religions disguised as political movements: totalitarian communism and
fascism. Ideas for social justice from
the enlightened 19th Century became tools for repression that eclipsed by far
lesser, more primitive tyrannies. Half
the globe was cast into political and intellectual dark age and the other half
felt compelled to waste such vast time and energy, not to mention lives,
through world war and cold war, that little was left for progress at home.
20th Century idealism, when we had
any time for it, spent itself time and again on the rock of indifference. Now, as we drag ourselves toward century's
end, pervading cynicism weighs our every step.
Not healthy skepticism questioning all in search of answers, but its
evil twin that tears down all, believing in nothing. So immersed are we, that we are blind to it. As cynicism becomes the norm, vestigial hope
withers.
Our cynical immersion is apparent in
minutiae. A headline announces 20
million Americans disbelieve a man walked on the moon. In the article, the cited data indicates
nothing of the sort. Nine percent of a
very small sample thought it possible the Apollo moon-landing was
faked. Another five percent did not
know. 14% times the current U.S.
population equals 20 million, so we bend the facts, create a clever headline,
and add another nail to the coffin of truth.
A U.S. Vice President ceremonially
dumps 10,000 pages of Federal regulations.
No one directly involved imagines 10,000 pages of rules, along with the
needs they address, are eliminated in one grand gesture. The regulations were split up, put in
different covers, given different names, and the band plays on. And Gore is one of the good guys. An environmentalist, he cares about the
planet and the future and all that, but as a politician he could not resist a
little cynical slight-of-hand that looked good for the folks back home. And we all accept it, because cynical
gestures are the norm. The end of the
20th Century nears, but it will take more than digits on the calendar to free
us from the mire. The lingering effects
of this century's mental drain may last decades. We might never emerge.
What we need is a break. A clean break from the 20th Century means,
above all, a change in the way we look at things, a change in our overall view
of ourselves, the universe, the past and the future. We are part of a universe infinite in time and space. The universe is real, we are real, and the
only place we will solve our problems is in the real universe. If prayer is a comfort, then pray for
strength, pray for wisdom, pray above all for a clear mind, for the ability to
see what is, to see beyond illusions.
The greatest illusion, and the most debilitating, is the cynicism that
says nothing can be done, nothing matters, life stinks and we can do nothing
about it.
We need to go to Mars (how is that
for a leap in logic, not to mention subject matter). When we go to Mars, as we must sometime in the months, years,
decades or centuries to come, it must be a global venture. Not merely multinational, not a mere pooling
of resources to share the cost, but a pooling of souls to make sure we do it
right. We need to break free of 20th
Century cynicism. We have technology
and medicine and educational means to give the people of the world command of
their own destiny's, but we lack a sense of the possible. For a thousand generations and more, human
destiny has been dictated by forces utterly beyond our comprehension, much less
our control. For comfort from the starkness
we gave the forces names, imagined them to be gods (or the gift of a God) and
hoped and prayed for benevolence, that the long trudge would lead to
paradise. And so it has, in a way.
In a very real sense, we have
reached the promised land. The long
trudge through physical, mental, technological and cultural evolution, an
advance through natural forces that, in total, are a kind of god, has brought
us to the point at which we could create a golden age on Earth. We have the technology. Individually, we can fly around the world
and even out of our world. We have
advances in medicine, in communications.
Agricultural advances have stood Malthus on his head to the extent that
developed countries have to create artificial contrivances to deal with massive
food surpluses that would otherwise force prices down below profitability.
So what is the problem? If we as individuals can do almost anything,
why can we as a species not create a perfect world? Our richest, strongest countries still seem enmeshed in forces
beyond our control. The gods still
laugh at us as we attempt to grapple with our own fate.
And perhaps that is the
problem. After a thousand generations,
we are used to not being in control.
We lack the long view. We lack
the attitude that this is our world and our destiny and that we can chart our
own course. We lack commonality with
our fellow space-travelers. Here we
journey together on this rock through the cosmos, but we do not feel together.
One grand gesture. Perhaps one grand gesture is all we need to
break the cycle of cynicism, start taking control of our fate as a species and
feeling at home in the new age of the possible. A quest on behalf of the Earth; not the nations, not even united
in the United Nations; but from the people of Earth, to explore, study,
perhaps even establish a permanent presence on our neighbor world. Such an achievement could break the icy grip
of cynicism. Once begun, the warming
sense of the possible will be self-regenerating, self-expanding. Our first trip to another planet, if we do
it right, can be the beacon that lights our way to a true golden age.
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