vision
by John at 11/03/2006 08:31:00 AM
This morning (on Boing Boing) I saw these beautiful slides from the Apollo era that a lucky guy found at the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena. There was no Power Point or CGI in those days, so each of the slides was illustrated by hand. I imagine that kind of graphic arts skill doesn't even exist anymore. If they were mine, I would have them blown up into poster sized prints to hang all over my house.
I've always been a fan of the Apollo project, from way back when I was just a six-year-old boy. I think mostly just the rockets and spacemen and stuff like that appealed to me. As I've gotten older, the appeal has been confusing. As I learn more about it, the motivations and politics behind the program become suspect, the science and economics don't make good sense, and the meaning of the work becomes tainted. I guess what appeals to me still is the technological audacity, the planning, and the dreamers and logisticians who made it all happen.
Apollo could never happen in today's America. The people in charge have neither the will, the know-how, or the selflessness to make it happen. Their visions are smokescreens.
So anyway, those pictures started me thinking about something I read a few days ago on a thing called "saecular theory," which is a theory of history that posits that there are approximately 80 year cycles (four generations of people) of four phases each: High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis. The last cycle began in 1945 (High), and will end when the current phase (Crisis) ends in another decade or so. Generally, I distrust theories of history, but this one is attractive.*
Where am I going with this? The Apollo program, along with other society wide efforts (civil rights, welfare for the poor and elderly), for good or ill, were the apotheosis of the last High (1945-1964). Now, Crisis, is the time to start building our vision of what the future should look like, just the way a vision of a progressive America was created, and the foundation laid for building it, in the 1930s. What should our children build during their High?
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I'm worried that we are on the edge. The environment may not be able to support for much longer the kinds of societies we have created for the number of people who want to enjoy them. The Earth will go on without us, but we probably don't have that much time left.
My vision for recreating the way we live is for sustainable living - I'm thinking of efficient renewable energy sources, lower energy/lower consumption lifestyles, careful management of natural foodstocks, and elimination of wasteful agriculture and manufacturing. We have to learn how to live well with zero consumption of nonrenewable natural resources, and learn how to carefully exploit resources that renew on a time scale of merely years, not centuries or eons. This means, in this country at least, the razing of the suburban autopia we already love to hate, but are reluctant to do away with. We will have to reorganize around small cities with self-sufficient local infrastructure, manufacturing, and agriculture. We will have to abandon the concentration of large populations in ecologically marginal regions (good riddance, Phoenix!). This will be a huge project, but it's no bigger than the project that got us here (recall the last High, 1945-1964, which built the world we have today).
This might get us, as a culture, through in a way that keeps our values and our identities intact - changed, but intact. At least until our kids' grandchildren finally face up to the limitations of what we have designed, and rip it down to start again, because that's where the real progress is. An edifice that stands forever is not progress, it's a monument.
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* Which makes it dangerous! The recommended starting point is the book The Fourth Turning. I'll have to check it out at my library.
I've always been a fan of the Apollo project, from way back when I was just a six-year-old boy. I think mostly just the rockets and spacemen and stuff like that appealed to me. As I've gotten older, the appeal has been confusing. As I learn more about it, the motivations and politics behind the program become suspect, the science and economics don't make good sense, and the meaning of the work becomes tainted. I guess what appeals to me still is the technological audacity, the planning, and the dreamers and logisticians who made it all happen.
Apollo could never happen in today's America. The people in charge have neither the will, the know-how, or the selflessness to make it happen. Their visions are smokescreens.
So anyway, those pictures started me thinking about something I read a few days ago on a thing called "saecular theory," which is a theory of history that posits that there are approximately 80 year cycles (four generations of people) of four phases each: High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis. The last cycle began in 1945 (High), and will end when the current phase (Crisis) ends in another decade or so. Generally, I distrust theories of history, but this one is attractive.*
Where am I going with this? The Apollo program, along with other society wide efforts (civil rights, welfare for the poor and elderly), for good or ill, were the apotheosis of the last High (1945-1964). Now, Crisis, is the time to start building our vision of what the future should look like, just the way a vision of a progressive America was created, and the foundation laid for building it, in the 1930s. What should our children build during their High?
-----
I'm worried that we are on the edge. The environment may not be able to support for much longer the kinds of societies we have created for the number of people who want to enjoy them. The Earth will go on without us, but we probably don't have that much time left.
My vision for recreating the way we live is for sustainable living - I'm thinking of efficient renewable energy sources, lower energy/lower consumption lifestyles, careful management of natural foodstocks, and elimination of wasteful agriculture and manufacturing. We have to learn how to live well with zero consumption of nonrenewable natural resources, and learn how to carefully exploit resources that renew on a time scale of merely years, not centuries or eons. This means, in this country at least, the razing of the suburban autopia we already love to hate, but are reluctant to do away with. We will have to reorganize around small cities with self-sufficient local infrastructure, manufacturing, and agriculture. We will have to abandon the concentration of large populations in ecologically marginal regions (good riddance, Phoenix!). This will be a huge project, but it's no bigger than the project that got us here (recall the last High, 1945-1964, which built the world we have today).
This might get us, as a culture, through in a way that keeps our values and our identities intact - changed, but intact. At least until our kids' grandchildren finally face up to the limitations of what we have designed, and rip it down to start again, because that's where the real progress is. An edifice that stands forever is not progress, it's a monument.
-----
* Which makes it dangerous! The recommended starting point is the book The Fourth Turning. I'll have to check it out at my library.
