[Moonbase-discuss] Re: Vol 1 #22 - Unfettered free enterprise

[Samuel Coniglio]

Another issue which most people don't think about in this 
short-attention-span society  is that there is no more "future."  The 
"future"-- from the days of George Jetson and utopian novels-- have 
been replaced with visions of a dystopian future, such as in "Blade 
Runner," "Road Warrior" and "The Matrix."

Our society needs inspiration, or at least a challenge.  The Cold War 
was a challenge.  Our goal was clear: defeat the Soviet system to 
prove that American Capitalism the best way to live.  We won, so now 
what?  After ten years, our society is looking more and more inward. 
We are more concerned about wealth and consumerism than in improving 
our fellow persons.  September 11th briefly woke us from our stupor, 
giving us a new challenge, albeit a dangerous one.  We could be 
heading straight down the path of Big Brother with the introduction 
of Citizen ID cards and biometric scanning, all in the name of 
protecting us from terrorists.

Returning to the Moon and the planets may not directly cure our 
planet's social ills. But at least it will give people a new destiny, 
a new direction, a new challenge. And it sure is positive.

Sam Coniglio





At 12:17 PM -0700 5/15/02, Randall Clague wrote:
>On Wed, 15 May 2002 09:37:36 -0700, jnasiatka@inhale.com wrote:
>
>>Ok, I need to drop my .02 in here.  I think what Mr Alexandr is getting at
>>here, is not so much condemnation
>>of the *idea* of free and unfettered capitalism, but the practical
>>applications of it.  I don't know if America has
>>truly had totally free capitalism by the pure definition, but if not,
>>we've come extremely close.  Look at the history
>>of the railroad empires, the early oil industry, the early food/drug
>>industries - all of these rose to power during
>>the industrial revolution when we had a ton of laissez-faire action going
>>on.  There were massive amounts of
>>corruption, abuses of power, and abuses of people, which finally caused
>>the government to have to step
>>in and do things like create anti-trust laws, the FDA etc...
>
>Yes, that is the popular history.  But what I've been hearing recently
>is that the railroads and the oil companies were not laissez-faire at
>all.  They were heavily subsidized by the government.  Now there's
>fertile field for corruption and abuse.
>
>>It's not so much that we need total regulation of space such that NASA et
>>al. is the *only* place one can go to,
>>but we need to make sure that when we go (either as a public or private
>>venture) we do it correctly with a level
>>of ethical considerations such that we don't screw things up long term.
>>Figuring out how to ensure that is the hard part.
>
>Oh, I don't know - defining "screw things up long term" will be no
>picnic either.  One perspective is, "Strip mine the moon?  Why not?
>The place is a dump." Another is, "The moon is a beautiful place - the
>ultimate desert - as Buzz Aldrin recognized when his first words from
>the lunar surface were, 'Magnificent...desolation.'  The moon should
>be a park."  I flip back and forth between the two according to my
>mood.  It doesn't affect my current activities, because either way, we
>have to go back.
>
>-R
>
>--
>"You told him about the statue?
>I can't believe you told him about the statue."
>                      -- William T. Riker
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--"Wherever you go, there you are."