Abandoning the space race

Abandoning fifty years of space leadership, something that every president has advanced since Eisenhower, reflects this generation’s changing view of technology. Our lives have gotten smaller, narrower in scope and individualistic. When we look to technologies we see a crutch rather than a catapult. The technologies that pervade our lives reflect the mundane ambitions of consumer culture. We have iPhone applications that make restaurant reservations from the palm of your hand; other applications tell you where you parked your car, saving you the trouble of having to think. We have virtual reality platforms to entertain video game enthusiasts. Each of these consumer trinkets was made possible, ironically, as spinoffs of the space race.

But this generation does not see space in broad terms. We are only interested in the space that resides between our brains and the latest gadgets in our hand. The result is that we use technology not as an extension of our imagination, but as a replacement for it.

On election night in 2008, throngs of people congregated in Grant Park to hear the president-elect speak. Commentators noted wistfully that President Obama was the first post-Baby Boomer President. The intent was to make us embrace another moment of manufactured sentiment, to elicit the collective national sigh: “Well good! We weathered the generation that brought us Woodstock, antidepressants, ‘The Big Chill’ and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.”

The Boomers may have tested the durability of America, both inside and outside the White House, but at least the Boomers had imagination. They grew up on the knee of someone who loved America. They saw the first television images of Neil Armstrong bouncing upon the surface of the moon as neighbors uttered, with a new kind of meaning, “My God.” It was a moment for all of humanity, delivered by the will of the American people.

Today, yes, another generation has taken over. Now we have a president who insists upon carrying a BlackBerry, but can do without the space program.

Eben Carle served in the White House as an Associate Director on the Homeland Security Council from 2008-2009. He received a master’s degree in American studies from Columbia University and is currently writing his first novel.