What dreams may come... (July 20, 2009)
I have mine, what about you?
I am almost embarrassed to say it, but it seems to me that the reactions to the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 show a lamentable lack of enthusiasm — most particularly in Sweden.
What I hear and read are comments stressing, above all, two things:
One. The “shoot” (as we called it at the time) was basically a propaganda enterprise. President Kennedy looked for something to turn people’s attention from the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, strike the Russians a blow and regain the initiative in world affairs and world appreciation (not to mention the polls at home). Well, he succeeded to a degree: The moon landing caught the attention of 500 million television viewers — then the largest audience in history — and behind them the whole world. As for the real balance of power, however, it meant not much.
Two. The money could have been spent more wisely trying to eradicate poverty and disease on Earth.
To which I say: Baloney!
To take the second argument first, the money would not have been spent on fighting poverty and disease. The world simply does not work that way. And besides, the enormous sums spent on construction of the rocket, the space craft and the satellite and the computer networks necessary created thousands of jobs and knowledge that slowly but surely trickled down (yes, I use that expression advisedly!) all around.
And besides, even if there was an element of propaganda involved —and, of course, there was — the most important thing revealed was that man is man, a passionate creature, curious, adventurous, condemned to try the impossible (or should I have written blessed with a will to try the impossible?). Blessed with a spirit apparent in Columbus or Wasco da Gama just as later on in Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. And others.
Man wants to know the universe in which fate placed him. He wants to know, not necessarily for practical, scientific or even political reasons. He wants to know because he is man. He has it within him, indeed it is his destiny, to ask questions and, if need be, try to answer them even at the risk of his life. Are there other similar beings on far off stars? What do they look like? Can they talk? Do they believe in God, and if so, which one?
Can we find another star, so that if on some not so distant day a nuclear war (think Israel, Iran, North/South Korea, Pakistan, India) makes this planet a poisoned wasteland, we might raise our tents and start anew? Can we overcome gravity once and for all and become —should we so wish — masters of the universe?
Right now, it seems, we are playing it safe, tinkering around with the space station, sending out unmanned probes, planning a more or less permanent station on the moon. But wait, wait, the impulse is there, today as much as forty years ago. The problems of propulsion will be solved, and the eternal quest for knowledge, and yes, of course, the adventure and glory will drive new astronauts further and further from this rotating home of ours. Trips to the moon, I safely predict, will be commonplace if (at least to begin with) rather costly. In the enthusiasm after Apollo 11, Pan American issued tickets to the moon. And even if that airline no longer exists, maybe somebody will honor the ticket.
I still have mine and I’m still ready to go, forty years older than when I saw that fantastic rocket streak away in the Florida sunshine.
Forty years older, but still dreaming ….
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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