Pence: "We will put American boots on the face of Mars" https://t.co/bADqoanYL6 pic.twitter.com/NJ1kt4oJuz
— The Hill (@thehill) July 7, 2017
Leave it to Mike Pence to phrase a Mars-shot in a way that my brain insists on taking in the worst possible way (space totalitarianism is an American boot, stamping on the face of Mars, forever). I just don't see the Trump Administration as being the greatest fans of science or education in the first place, and I don't really trust their long-range planning skills to marshal such a scheme into fruition. Also, there might be plans to create a military branch--for space.
I've joked before about this Trump timeline not being the one I belong to. In the timeline I'd prefer, humans as a species would approach space as a non-political opportunity for exploration and cooperation in branching out off the homeworld into something less tribal, trivial and political, and face the real challenges of being not just global citizens, but solar system citizens. While it sounds like such a military branch would have a defensive mission guarding our orbiting assets, I'd worry about "mission creep". Trumpists have enough issues with earth "aliens" entering the US--I don't know if this is the leadership I'd want for a first encounter situation.
But I'm just being speculative. There are lots of reasons why I treat the Trump Administration as if it was populated by hordes of six-limbed belligerent green giants, and I was Princess Dejah Sore-Ass.
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