As long as we become space faring super survivors, I’m fine with that. Good intentions don’t make rocket fuel for the vroom vroom. We need to vroom some explorers to other places, just in case.
Well, I mean that’s a lie. “Good intentions don’t make rocket fuel.” The first rocket that was ever designed was designed specifically to go to space. It was used in WW2 by the Nazis but its creator said “The rocket worked perfectly, but it fell on the wrong planet.” Those good intentions are needed for every step of space exploration. You don’t get to suddenly become a rampant narcissistic, misogynistic, arrogant piece of human garbage the second that you clear the gravity well of your home planet. You hold true to those purposes because they will inform your every decision. If you start doing horrible things in the pursuit of a lofty goal, you corrupt that goal and all actions you take in the future. You will be looking through things in a dirtied, bloodied lens. Or, as someone once put it far better…
“You cannot explain away a wantonly immoral act because you think that it is connected to some higher purpose.” - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Whether you do good things or bad things is who you are. If you start taking terrible actions then you become a terrible person. Or, as the man again once said…
“It’s our morality that defines us. It’s part of the truth of our existence.”
Then there’s the fact that Elon constantly shits on everyone below him. Guess what? There’s a few quotes for that too. Here are my favorites.
“No being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another.”
“You know, there are some words I’ve known since I was a schoolboy. “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.”
Or what about this interaction between Worf and Picard?
Picard: We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again.
Worf: I believed her. I… helped her. I did not see her for what she was.
Picard: Mr. Worf, villains who twirl their moustache are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged.
Worf: I think… after yesterday people will not be so ready to trust her.
Picard: Maybe. But she, or someone like her, will always be with us. Waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. […] Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we must continually pay.
Now lemme top all this ramble off with one final slightly edited quote to cement my point.
The first duty of every Star Trek fan is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don’t deserve to wear that cosplay.
I saw James Cromwell, the actor who portrayed Zefram Cochrane, on a flight into Albuquerque about a decade or so ago. He was wearing a colorful kufi hat, and he’s so god damned tall I could easily see him from like three rows back. I was 99% sure it was him, and when I saw him again picking up his luggage I became 100% sure. He’s a freaking giant.
I have a very strong introvert aspect to myself. I very badly wanted to tell him how much his portrayal of Cochrane influenced my life and my career, but I chickened out. For the record, I am a research scientist who now works in big tech.
I think what I loved about him was his flaws. I especially loved how his self-awareness of the chasm between the person he saw himself to be and the legend that grew around him caused him to freak out and panic. I also really understood his whole self-destructive and self-sabotaging stage. And despite all of that, he won through, and Starfleet was the end product.
I love what you’ve written and I think it speaks to the ethos Roddenberry built into his universe to show us what is possible, but I really loved the idea that it grew from this flawed human before it blossomed.
That’s not to say the vroom vroom person was correct. Quite the opposite. A mirror universe Cochrane reimagined as Elon Musk would have lead to… probably the mirror universe but worse. It was more about the struggle possibly being worth it, despite how you feel about yourself and even if the end is something you can’t even imagine.
I always love that logic … our planet is too dangerous and dying, so we have to leave to make sure we survive
At this point in our evolution … we would ensure our long term survival in our galaxy if we stayed put and maintained our current environment. It’s the only liveable atmosphere, environment and planet that we know of that we can live on and have access to.
How are we going to restart life on Mars where there is no atmosphere or resources when we’re doing such a terrible job maintaining the existing atmosphere and environment we were born into?
I always like burning house metaphors … space exploration to save our species at this point in time is like burning your house down, telling everyone you can’t live there any more and saying that you’re leaving to go live somewhere else where you can decorate a better bedroom. Except your burning house is located in an isolated desert with no shelter for hundreds of miles around.
As long as we become space faring super survivors, I’m fine with that. Good intentions don’t make rocket fuel for the vroom vroom. We need to vroom some explorers to other places, just in case.
Well, I mean that’s a lie. “Good intentions don’t make rocket fuel.” The first rocket that was ever designed was designed specifically to go to space. It was used in WW2 by the Nazis but its creator said “The rocket worked perfectly, but it fell on the wrong planet.” Those good intentions are needed for every step of space exploration. You don’t get to suddenly become a rampant narcissistic, misogynistic, arrogant piece of human garbage the second that you clear the gravity well of your home planet. You hold true to those purposes because they will inform your every decision. If you start doing horrible things in the pursuit of a lofty goal, you corrupt that goal and all actions you take in the future. You will be looking through things in a dirtied, bloodied lens. Or, as someone once put it far better…
Whether you do good things or bad things is who you are. If you start taking terrible actions then you become a terrible person. Or, as the man again once said…
Then there’s the fact that Elon constantly shits on everyone below him. Guess what? There’s a few quotes for that too. Here are my favorites.
Or what about this interaction between Worf and Picard?
Now lemme top all this ramble off with one final slightly edited quote to cement my point.
Beautifully said and wraps up everything I love about Trek culture.
I saw James Cromwell, the actor who portrayed Zefram Cochrane, on a flight into Albuquerque about a decade or so ago. He was wearing a colorful kufi hat, and he’s so god damned tall I could easily see him from like three rows back. I was 99% sure it was him, and when I saw him again picking up his luggage I became 100% sure. He’s a freaking giant.
I have a very strong introvert aspect to myself. I very badly wanted to tell him how much his portrayal of Cochrane influenced my life and my career, but I chickened out. For the record, I am a research scientist who now works in big tech.
I think what I loved about him was his flaws. I especially loved how his self-awareness of the chasm between the person he saw himself to be and the legend that grew around him caused him to freak out and panic. I also really understood his whole self-destructive and self-sabotaging stage. And despite all of that, he won through, and Starfleet was the end product.
I love what you’ve written and I think it speaks to the ethos Roddenberry built into his universe to show us what is possible, but I really loved the idea that it grew from this flawed human before it blossomed.
That’s not to say the vroom vroom person was correct. Quite the opposite. A mirror universe Cochrane reimagined as Elon Musk would have lead to… probably the mirror universe but worse. It was more about the struggle possibly being worth it, despite how you feel about yourself and even if the end is something you can’t even imagine.
I always love that logic … our planet is too dangerous and dying, so we have to leave to make sure we survive
At this point in our evolution … we would ensure our long term survival in our galaxy if we stayed put and maintained our current environment. It’s the only liveable atmosphere, environment and planet that we know of that we can live on and have access to.
How are we going to restart life on Mars where there is no atmosphere or resources when we’re doing such a terrible job maintaining the existing atmosphere and environment we were born into?
I always like burning house metaphors … space exploration to save our species at this point in time is like burning your house down, telling everyone you can’t live there any more and saying that you’re leaving to go live somewhere else where you can decorate a better bedroom. Except your burning house is located in an isolated desert with no shelter for hundreds of miles around.
Why survive if we’re going to be so wretched? How do people value life itself above the quality of that life?