I’m not holding the astronaut responsible for anything. It’s the reverse: because the astronaut had to work within the system to succeed, his success is not his personal success, it’s the system’s success. Saying “it doesn’t matter which astronaut won” is saying “it doesn’t matter which system won”. When one system starved up to 7.5 million people to death and another didn’t, which system won is not a petty issue.
(You could, however, argue that “first man on Mars” and “second man on Mars” are very similar achievements and that one is so marginally close to the other the difference between the two is petty. But I don’t think that’s what most people who express this kind of pettiness sentiment mean.)
I see your point; I think that saying “the system won”, though, is an easy story to tell that doesn’t reflect what actually happens very well. I don’t see how the starving-people-to-death part of the system and the space-race part are sufficiently connected that the space-race part winning helps the starving-people-to-death part.
(If you disagree about this prediction, I will be unhappy to discuss it further but happy to say “okay, this is the underlying fact on which we disagree, let’s stop there”. Is this the underlying fact on which we disagree, or is there more to it?)
Thus, my understanding of the original quote is “The Pursuit of Science lies above political differences, and sabotaging the former because of the latter is petty.”
the space-race part winning helps the starving-people-to-death part
Via propaganda.
Specifically, in the form of “Yes, all y’all are starving and we had to shoot a few of your friends and relatives for not being enthusiastic enough, but look! We are actually achieving GREAT THINGS! Digging ditches in Siberian permafrost is part of the common effort which makes our society SUCCESSFUL and we can prove that it is successful because we just WON THE SPACE RACE!”.
I think that the Soviet Union actually got a lot of propaganda mileage out of Sputnik and Gagarin in real life.
And that is, of course, ignoring the other part—that space rockets with minor modifications function perfectly well as ICBMs...
Also, there’s a more direct connection: They both involve the government deciding to allocate resources. In the case of the space race, the government allocates resources to something; in the case of the starving Ukrainians, the government takes resources away from someone. But they’re flip sides of the same process, which is a top-down dictatorship using ideology to decide who gets to have the resources.
They both involve the government deciding to allocate resources
All governments are in the business of allocating resources, both directly (US government spending is about one third of GDP) and indirectly through laws and regulations.
I see your point; I think that saying “the system won”, though, is an easy story to tell that doesn’t reflect what actually happens very well. I don’t see how the starving-people-to-death part of the system and the space-race part are sufficiently connected that the space-race part winning helps the starving-people-to-death part.
Try replacing “starving people to death” with “putting people in ovens”.
I’m not holding the astronaut responsible for anything. It’s the reverse: because the astronaut had to work within the system to succeed, his success is not his personal success, it’s the system’s success. Saying “it doesn’t matter which astronaut won” is saying “it doesn’t matter which system won”. When one system starved up to 7.5 million people to death and another didn’t, which system won is not a petty issue.
(You could, however, argue that “first man on Mars” and “second man on Mars” are very similar achievements and that one is so marginally close to the other the difference between the two is petty. But I don’t think that’s what most people who express this kind of pettiness sentiment mean.)
I see your point; I think that saying “the system won”, though, is an easy story to tell that doesn’t reflect what actually happens very well. I don’t see how the starving-people-to-death part of the system and the space-race part are sufficiently connected that the space-race part winning helps the starving-people-to-death part.
(If you disagree about this prediction, I will be unhappy to discuss it further but happy to say “okay, this is the underlying fact on which we disagree, let’s stop there”. Is this the underlying fact on which we disagree, or is there more to it?)
Thus, my understanding of the original quote is “The Pursuit of Science lies above political differences, and sabotaging the former because of the latter is petty.”
Via propaganda.
Specifically, in the form of “Yes, all y’all are starving and we had to shoot a few of your friends and relatives for not being enthusiastic enough, but look! We are actually achieving GREAT THINGS! Digging ditches in Siberian permafrost is part of the common effort which makes our society SUCCESSFUL and we can prove that it is successful because we just WON THE SPACE RACE!”.
I think that the Soviet Union actually got a lot of propaganda mileage out of Sputnik and Gagarin in real life.
And that is, of course, ignoring the other part—that space rockets with minor modifications function perfectly well as ICBMs...
Also, there’s a more direct connection: They both involve the government deciding to allocate resources. In the case of the space race, the government allocates resources to something; in the case of the starving Ukrainians, the government takes resources away from someone. But they’re flip sides of the same process, which is a top-down dictatorship using ideology to decide who gets to have the resources.
All governments are in the business of allocating resources, both directly (US government spending is about one third of GDP) and indirectly through laws and regulations.
Try replacing “starving people to death” with “putting people in ovens”.