"...Berry wrote his essay about the downside of space colonization in the 1970s. But his views are not necessarily out of date. environmentalists might argue today that the case Berry made against space colonization is even more relevant today than it was in the 1970s."
..The ideas of frontier pioneering, continual progress, manifest destiny, free enterprise, and rugged individualism have been prominent in the American national narrative, which has constructed and maintained an ideology of "Americanism"- what it means to be American and what America is meant to be and do. in exploring the history of U.S. spaceflight, it is useful to consider how U.S. space advocacy movements and initiatives have interpreted and deployed the values and beliefs sustained by this national narrative.
The aim here is to illuminate the role and function of ideology and advocacy in the history of spaceflight by examining the rhetoric of spaceflight advocacy. Starting from the premise that spaceflight has played a role in the American national narrative and that this national narrative has played a role in the history of spaceflight, this paper examines the relationship between spaceflight and this narrative.
Examining the history of spaceflight advocacy reveals an ideology of spaceflight that draws deeply on a durable American cultural narrative-a national mythology-of frontier pioneering, continual progress, manifest destiny, free enterprise, rugged individualism, and a right to life without limits. This ideology rests on a number of assumptions, or beliefs, about the role of the United States in the global community, the American national character, and the "right" form of political economy.
According to this ideology, the United States is and must remain "number one" in the world community, playing the role of political, economic, scientific, technological, and moral leader. That is, the United States is and must be exceptional. This ideology constructs Americans as independent, pioneering, resourceful, inventive, and exceptional, and it establishes that liberal democracy and free-market capitalism (or capitalist democracy) constitute the only viable form of political economy.
The rhetoric of space advocacy exalts those enduring American values of pioneering, progress, enterprise, freedom, and rugged individualism, and it advances the cause of capitalist democracy....."
Visions of the human colonization of space present a “moral law of the frontier†that is disturbing, Berry concludes: this law is that “humans are destructive in proportion to their supposition of abundance; if they are faced with an infinite abundance, then they will become infinitely destructive."....
2010: Obama and His Administration Lament America's Superpower Status "....The Obama administration's top science and technology official, who has argued for the economic de-development of America, warned science students last Friday that the United States cannot expect to be "number one" forever. "We can't expect to be number one in everything indefinitely," Dr. John P. Holdren said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)......"
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sky is our greatest enemy!!!
Why? Because they don’t believe in striking out in hope in any direction. They just believe in doomsday moping right here where we are, underscored by massively funded futility.
How many of the 150 nations are in it for the money? How many are exempt from new CO2 standards? How many see this event as an opportunity to demand retribution from developed countries?
We have experienced climate change since the beginning of time. Mankind has nothing to do with climate change. It is caused by the Sun.
President Obama joined leaders from 150 nations on Monday in pledging action against climate change; action that is just plain stupid.
And obviously no nation is immune to global warming fairy tales.
Gore lost to Bush over his idiocy and his anti gun stance.
We will have to pass Carbon Controls to see what's in them and then our political class will have something inconsequential to debate and demagogue.
The political pond is in need of turning!
Global Warming PING!
The world is a tinder box awaiting to ignite WW3 and Obama thinks a warm day is the greatest danger to humanity. What a clueless twit.
No nation is immune to bulls*t, either.
Obama is speaking now. He’s in full ‘s’ whistle mode.
Blah blah ... I am saving the planet...blah blah...my great green economy..blah.. moral imperative..Bill Gates..the future is ours to shape...blah blah
Global warming, the magician’s pretty assistant to keep you distracted.
There, fixed it.
I wish he would stop sending my money to third world nations without any strings attached or any accountability plans.
Since global warming, so called, is an utter fiction, Obama can define it any way he chooses.