Space has always been the greatest mystery to mankind. We’ve watched the stars move, we’ve watched them fall from the heavens, we’ve hidden in terror as the sun was devoured (Viking Solar-Eclipse myths), we’ve even seen the sun move back the other way (Isaiah 38:8).
For thousands of years, space has been the uncrossable line for mankind. We found a way to make paper, we created systems of counting and discovered functions, we tamed the wildest beasts, we invented ships and conquered the seas, we built colossal monuments that still amaze us today. We founded the greatest civilization the world has ever seen (Rome), we became the masters of our planet. All that, before we understood what those strange sparkly things up there are.
We could only watch, awed and terrified, but never understand. Because of this, we have always been drawn to space. And why not? Space is the great unknown, the untamed beast, the “final frontier.” Personally, when I look at the stars I feel like a person who has lived his entire life in one house, never leaving it, looking outside and seeing the strange and interesting things, wanting to explore them, but never being able to. And if you think of it that way, you’ll understand why I believe space is the ultimate symbol of freedom.
We pushed our limits to understand the mysteries of this strange vastness and to attain this freedom. We’ve even gone so far as to make the greatest leap in human history; we have gone outside the house. When you just stop to think what that means and how mind-blowing and significant it is, it’s really amazing. We’ve broken all the barriers and reached the unreachable. And after we did that, after we flew a man into space, after we landed a man on the moon, after we’ve created gigantic station after station in space, we stopped caring.
NASA scientists are trying to explore space. But what about the rest of us? The government, the people, social media; no one cares anymore. We’ve lost interest in space. Whether it’s because we feel like we have everything we need here and there’s no need to go forward, or because we’re tired of pumping huge amounts of money into it, or because we’re simply frightened by it – no one can say for sure why, but space exploration is no longer a big thing. And that’s not just bad, it’s downright wrong.
How could we so quickly turn away from our dreams? We saw a bright future of exploration and knowledge.
We were united by a common goal: to tame space itself. But we, for some unknown reason, went away from that. You can tell me that advancement in space is just too expensive and there’s no financial merit. And that’s true, the price is high, but it’s worth it all.
We, as a society, have come to obtain a perverted view on everything we do, thinking that whatever society does should bring some sort of materialistic benefit. We’ve forgotten the very purpose we’re here, what’s driven us on through history up to this point – elevation. Not elevation in the literal sense of moving up physically, but elevation of the human mind, the uplifting of our world views, our morals, our society in general. The quest for a higher existence.
It’s this need to be better that has always made us go forward. But now we’ve stopped wanting to be better. Truly, just take a look at society; we’ve come so far as to actually destroy our greatest and most important values. And now we fight over what’s right and what’s wrong. I always thought the reason society has become so twisted was because people have been given too much freedom. But I’ve realized that we lost our freedom when we lost the desire to go forward. We’ve trapped society in a cycling existence and made our home our prison.
We’ve slowly been losing our interest in space exploration over the last few decades. And we’ve lost the unity of a nation with a purpose. We are no longer a society treading forward and breaching the limits. We are a mob of individuals, each trying to achieve their own measly goals.
We fight for control among ourselves and we argue about what matters. We’ve lost a common cause. And why is a common cause so important anyway? Well, having one great goal, as a society, brings forth a mass of jobs, a mass of people willing to work for the greater good and moves the nation onward, inspiring exploration and innovation. The only thing better than a strong nation united under a common cause is two nations united under a common cause and so forth.
During the 1960s, the U.S. experienced the longest uninterrupted period of economic expansion. Of course, there were a lot of factors attributing to this. But the nation was united. Brought together during WWII to fight for a common cause: freedom. We were banded together in a race. The race to send a man to the moon. And we won that race. The Soviet Union is the country that sent a man to space first, but I don’t look at countries and nationalities. I’m a Russian who grew up in the U.S. and I’ve come to understand that nationality doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. We, the great human race, did it. Not a single nation, not a single man, we all did it as one great whole.
A common purpose gives us the drive to go forward and elevate. And we’ve been losing that purpose rapidly. The nations of the world were never united before in history, but it’s about time we were. (I don’t mean that the countries of the world should unite into one big super country, that would make more problems than it would solve.) Human beings have got to finally learn to look beyond nationalities, races, cultures, etc. Whenever people find out I’m not American, they ask me what nationality I am. Whenever people find out I’m Christian, they ask what denomination I’m in. The list goes on. Society has created box after box, thinking outside of which the average human being is not even capable of comprehending because his mind has been formed by society. The human mind is “more machine than man now” (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode VI). Our mind has become a mechanism, structuralized by society to have an automatic, subconscious view on everything.
Here’s an example: Last year, I started developing the idea at hand, and I found that our history and modern society has made the human life a path. What’s wrong with a path? Well, it’s a path you supposedly cannot get off of. Every human goes through the same process like robots: School, college, job, wife and kids somewhere in there, a few years of life after you retire, and death. There’s nothing wrong with any single one of these, and one is inevitable (school, duh!). But the way society presents them is not exactly the best.
Life is seen as a path that you follow, or also as a series of doors. As you move along the path there are different routes you can take, or different doors that are opened and closed, but the path still mostly runs the same course. This way of thinking forms the mind to be very limited and puts everything in boxes. When I started looking at life not as a path but as an open field, I understood that there are no paths nor doors. I decided I wouldn’t follow this path society has made in every individual’s mind. It disgusted me and made me feel like a robot.
I decided I wouldn’t work for a grade, because the whole idea of grades has become twisted. Society has made it more important to have a piece of paper than to have knowledge. I also decided to not go to college for the same reason. (I do work for a grade now, just for my parents’ sake. And it’s very likely that I will go to college. After all, it won’t hurt.) When my friends noticed that I stopped caring for what number/letter I have on my paper, and purposefully failed at everything, they were all asking me the same questions and telling me the same things. On many occasions one of my friends asked me why I planned on not going to college. I told him, “because I can, not go to college.” Always, his immediate answer would be something like: “But you have to go to college, you can’t just not go!” His mind had a mechanical reaction, he was preprogrammed with the idea that you have to go to college and you cannot survive without it. Sure, college is a great opportunity to elevate, get an education and have more opportunities. But I dislike the idea that it’s presented like a level in a video game that you have to pass to keep moving forward.
It’s time society stopped thinking inside boxes and looked beyond that. It’s not about winning the game, and it’s not about playing the game either. It’s about getting something from the game. Learning, understanding, finding new ways to look at everything, discovering new ideas, etc. It’s about elevating. And what better way to elevate than to, well, elevate? We have reached the pinnacle of human potential. It’s time to use that potential. If society were to be a united body, then society’s problems would be that much easier to solve. We’ve been focusing on solving all these problems, forgetting that progress solves society’s problems of its own accord.
When Napoleon returned from his exile on Elba, he wasn’t thinking about the new government that would oppose him, or about the multiple countries that would immediately try to subdue him. He was thinking about restoring France and himself to glory, of elevation. The outcome? Napoleon regained control of France without a single battle and was quickly on the rise again. And let’s not forget about Waterloo. The Seventh Coalition was united under one common cause: to subdue Napoleon Bonaparte. The many nations fought together for the good of society as a whole, not for their own personal gain (except, perhaps, their safety). When the individual thinks about the progress and elevation of society, instead of society thinking about the comfort and well-being of the individual (which is important but much less than the well-being of society), society prospers, and</spa
