Anti Progress

I'd been aware of Bruce Gagnon's anti-nuclear anti-space organization Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space for a few months, but a reading of the docs on their website puzzled me. The title tells you what they don't like but what DO they like? A certain pro-space slant can be detected but for the life of me I could not see a plan for getting from here (Earth) to there (space). Being against something is a fine and noble tradition in America but you gotta show the plan to have cred.

I wrote Bruce an email on 4/17/2005 in response to this post (quoted below).

"No matter whether you are a left winger or a right winger you should be worried about how the multi-national corporations are running our country into the ground. They don't care about "country" any more."

I see by your blog entry that we have many of the same goals - I look at infrastructure and wonder where the money will come from. For my .02 cents the 87 billion (and counting) for Iraq should have been spent _here_ developing a domestic energy industry. And so on.

I believe that no one person or agency can or should have 'the answer'. But men of good will can work together on the puzzle and create an answer that suits all of us.

Global Network is against .. well .. weapons and nuclear power for space. The organization I work for, Liftport Group, wants to build a space transport system that will lower the cost of space access for all parties below the figure of $1000 per lb to orbit.

Is there room in your philosophy for private enterprise in space? Can a group such as yours assist a venture such as ours?

For what it's worth, note our Policy of International Public Inclusion at . I don't claim this is unique to LPG but we are serious about the ideas and intent behind PIP;

"an invitation to every human being to participate in the development of the Space Elevator in some manner. The Space Elevator is a tremendous project that will have an impact on the entire planet, not just the United States. While the project will be led by our US company, LiftPort Group feels humanity as a whole has a right to be involved in such a project."

Let me know what you think.

Brian Dunbar

Naive, sure. But I remain an optimist. Bruce responded so;

Generally I think our membership would first support building a real mass transit system here on planet Earth before we go rushing off into space. It is our belief that until we get our shit together here on this planet we ought to slow down the rush to move our bad seed of war, greed, and environmental degredation into the heavens.....

Bruce

To me this has one of two implications.
1) Bruce has a foolishly optimistic point of view regarding human nature.
2) He knows full well that the lion will never lie down with the lamb, and his group's goal (perhaps intended, perhaps not) is to keep humanity tied to our home world.

Whatever. Progress has a way of running roughshod over those who stand in the way. Being a speed-bump can be a noble way of life but it's not one I prefer.