American's aren't Exceptional In Space
By Samson Williams
Morning Beautiful People!
Starting off my usual morning routine of putting on my Captain Obvious hat and pointing out the obvious. DYK: Americans aren't exceptional in Space?
Laura Winter I finally have something worthy (maybe) of The DownLink Podcast. Because, once you dare say it out loud, what made America great (other than those 250 years of free slave labor) are the cultural and religious artifacts of:
- Manifest Destiny (aka Transcontinental Genocide but lets not get stuck on the details of The Expanse, Inside the Gravity Well edition) and
- American Exceptionalism
These two religious artifacts are such engrained dogma of America's core beliefs in The Space Economy that to discuss them candidly, may feel like an attack on America, Christianity or God herself. Why that is, is for a variety of reasons which come to light when we discuss the 5th Pillar of The Space Economy, the Role of Religion in Space. And yes, we believe in these two artifacts because...we'll we believe in them. They are two of the core ideals that enabled America to become America.
Manifest Destiny best translates out to "God wills it". And under that banner America massacred the "...merciless Indian savages..." ( how the Indigenous People of these lands were described in the Declaration of Independence, Dan Hawk) from sea to shining sea; as well as enslave my forebearers. And under the auspicious of American Exceptionalism, America finds itself resting on its laurels in...4th Place? Maybe 6th place of the current Space Race 2.0. As American Exceptionalism has created blockers to reality, with Americans assuming that our values, political system and divine right(s) are unique amongst nations, "men" and the cosmos. Both creating a mythological sense of entitlement and destiny that as America goes, so goes Humanity as a whole.
Which is why we find ourselves in the position, that this morning, sans coffee, I can state and draw a level of ire from all those who bleed red, white and blue.... that America is not exceptional. Because if was clearly the case that American Exceptionalism would entitle us to bear the mantle of democracy and humanity into the 5th Industrial Revolution and beyond, you the reader would not feel attacked / some type of way. And simply be able to dismiss the ravings of a mad man (that being me) for being simply ravings of a deranged individuals.
Alas, one day into this government shut down...America is as about as exceptional as these times we live in. 😉
#ManifestDestiny #AmericanExceptionalism #ReligioninSpace