Via Modern Mythology:
Many of you know by now that the US space program, though not ended in its entirety, has been demonstrably downgraded, and now faces an uncertain privatized future.
This isn’t new, the dismantling of the shuttle program is just the external proof of something that has long been in the works: the continued ideology of privatization at work.
I was saddened by this news, but not so much because of the mothballing of a program that is admittedly mired in many ways in an abandoned past.
No. It further shows that our government either doesn’t understand the nature of the scientific endeavor, or more likely, simply doesn’t care. Short term profit has completely overtaken American mythology in the past few decades, and it is leading us into a death spiral from which there may be no escape until we reach the other side of the vortex.
I’ll admit my bias in this upfront: I have a lot of shall we say misgivings about the idea that everything does better when privatized. Certain systems become inherently unhealthy for the people within them when privatized, while other systems perform better based on a profit motive …
More on Modern Mythology.
