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| Apollo 11 30th Anniversary (NASA) |
Nostalgia is somewhat misleading: we always long for the idealized utopia we think we recall when everything was "perfect" and we were the "city on a hill" (an overused metaphor) perhaps for an exceptionalism we've probably never exhibited. Beyond Sputnik, we rode the wave of innovation and convinced ourselves arrogantly that our ascension as a global power would be exponential and infinite; aided only by divine providence, personal charm and prestidigitation.
I joked with a classmate from North Carolina A and T Thursday night: where are the flying cars? They actually do exist, but far beyond the budgets mere mortals and senior engineers can afford. There was once here, a national will to do great things that has been resurrected on other Marshall Planned shores. We were Babel: "Indeed the people [are] one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them."
E Pluribus Unum is now a singular entity - as in person, not country, devolved to emotional and intellectual pubescence, enthralled by the technology so much to require 12-step intervention to go offline and read a book for knowledge or leisure; oblivious to the thrill of striving to master the material, rather than download it from Google. It would seem this speculative fiction writer's prophetic utterance was/is currently inaccurate:
A day will come when beings, now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon Earth as a footstool and laugh, and reach out their hands amidst the stars.
— H. G. Wells, 1902
E Pluribus Unum is now a singular entity - as in person, not country, devolved to emotional and intellectual pubescence, enthralled by the technology so much to require 12-step intervention to go offline and read a book for knowledge or leisure; oblivious to the thrill of striving to master the material, rather than download it from Google. It would seem this speculative fiction writer's prophetic utterance was/is currently inaccurate:
A day will come when beings, now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon Earth as a footstool and laugh, and reach out their hands amidst the stars.
— H. G. Wells, 1902
My classmate and I are both "men of a certain age," and once upon a time we dreamed a world where problems were solved, not complicated by technology or political machinations; and that "the system" would replace us with able-minded men and women as we time travel forward to a good remainder of days.
Germany Inspires Innovation
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