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Behavior like that described in this post is another reason why I abandoned the Mars Society.
I moved to Colorado in June 2004. I had been a board member in various positions in the Louisiana Mars Society until then, and was looking forward to getting involved with what to my eye was the “mother chapter” of the MS.
Of course, 2004 was a Presidential election year, and the Rocky Mountain Mars Society met at the University of Colorado — in Boulder. Meetings were peppered with out-of-context and unprompted snarking about Bush and Republicans in general from several members, and the rest ignored them in such a way that to me implied tacit agreement. As the election grew closer, this behavior became more pronounced. Everyone’s free to have their opinions, and I know better than to expect everyone to agree with mine (especially in “Berkeley in the Mountains”) — it was simply that it was annoying and out of place. The environment was reminiscent of what Judith at Kesher Talk describes in this passage, and that was what made it annoying and turned me off to further involvement in the local chapter:
“People just assume you’re a Democrat.” Boy do they.
Another thing they do which Kornblat doesn’t give an example of, but which we all have experienced: They always start political conversations. None of us do. We have learned that no one wants to argue issues on their merits, that the room gets very quiet and unfriendly, that people start screaming at you, or rant the most loopy beliefs and conspiracy theories. We just assume that is not a topic anyone can treat in a dispassionate manner.
But they always provoke political conversations. Well, not conversations, which would be enjoyable and enlightening. They make pronouncements. And look around the room to see if anyone not only doesn’t agree, but doesn’t agree enthusiastically. As a friend deep in the closet in the theater world put it, you can’t just sit quietly and wait for the topic to change. No, you are suspect if you do not vocally endorse the official opinion of the group. You thought you were in a project meeting or a coffee klatch or a dinner party, and all of a sudden it has turned into the Communist Youth League Self-Criticism Session.
And then, after they have assumed, because no one in the room has fangs or horns, that a political support group is what everyone wants (and they do, except for you) – if you express your difference of opinion, they are offended that you spoiled the intimate feeling in the room by being other than they assumed, based on their superficial reading of you. In other words, they brought up politics, but they are the only ones who get to play. If you join in, you are the one who soured the conversation by bringing up politics. Because they weren’t trying to start a political discussion, they just wanted to commiserate with friends. You party pooper.
Should I join a chapter whose meetings are conducted in that sort of environment? No thanks…I’ve got better things to do.
Or perhaps he jumped it a long time ago and I just wasn’t paying attention.
One of the reasons I’m no longer involved with the Mars Society (aside from attending their nearby convention last year) is things like this. Sadly, like John Kerry’s “joke” earlier this week, the fact of Zubrin’s over-the-top ravings hardly comes as a surprise anymore…the only surprise is now the increasingly strident language employed. Like a junkie pursuing a fix, Zubrin seems to have a need to make ever more extreme pronouncements to top what’s come before, in order to get attention for himself (oh, and his organization, too).
As others have said, he once showed promise as a great front man for space advocacy. He came to public attention by passionately promoting the cause of exploring and settling Mars in the near term, explaining how it could be done without waiting for wizard technologies to be invented and without breaking the bank. He could have been a new Gerard K. O’Neill, in fact — with the initial popularity of the Mars Society and the contacts this afforded him with celebrities and space professionals, he could have become a leader and popularizer of space settlement for a new generation.
But instead of another O’Neill, he turned out to be another Nixon…paranoid about his enemies and prone to cheap vendettas against those who don’t see things exactly his way.
Zubrin brought space exploration and settlement back into popular culture after two decades, and he succeeded in founding a new space advocacy organization to promote those ideas — he should be given credit for that. But where he failed is in not recognizing that his moment had passed as soon as the Mars Society was born. As Hoffer said, few leaders of mass movements have the temperament to make the transition when their movement becomes institutionalized. Issuing vitriolic missives of this sort certainly indicate he lacks the communications skills and good judgement to be a leader that I would look to.
But what’s especially pathetic about the announcement Keith links to is not really the juvenile name-calling or any specific example of nastiness, but the fact that finally getting what he wanted was not enough for Zubrin. Had the announcement consisted solely of its first and last sentences, it would have been a pleasant and gracious acknowledgement of NASA’s having changed its mind on Hubble to Zubrin’s liking. Instead, he wastes four paragraphs exploring yet again his personal animosity towards a NASA Administrator who has been out of that post for more than a year and a half, and rehashing his earlier over-the-top statements against the man and the earlier Hubble decision.
So much for showing appreciation…not to mention class.
Seems the link between Hugo Chavez and Sequoia voting machines is getting some federal attention.
This link was mentioned in a meeting I attended back in July, sponsored by the Arapahoe County Democrats. The speaker raised a number of valid concerns about electronic voting machines, and was clearly taking pains to appear non-partisan on the issue…but not so the audience.
At one point, the subject of Chavez and his connection to Sequoia came up — the connection being that the Venezuelan government owns 28% of the parent company, Smartmatic, and there was some controversy in Chavez’ 2004 reelection over whether the vote was rigged via such machines. But while that IS the connection, the speaker only stated that the CEO of Smartmatic is barred by the Bush Administration from entering the US, without explaining why. This prompted three women in the crowd to comment:
WOMAN 1: [suddenly excited] “Maybe he’s got connections to Hugo Chavez!”
WOMAN 2: [intrigued] “Oooh…maybe we’ll like that!”
WOMAN 3: [gushing like a schoolgirl] “Maybe he’ll help us out in the next election!”
The tone and nature of the comments clearly implied that a Chavez-Sequoia connection was seen by these women as a desirable thing, because while tampering with the vote by rigging electronic voting machines is clearly a bad thing, it could be a good thing if done by Chavez since it would presumably be done to harm Republicans (specifically Chimpy McBushhitler). In other words, it’s an example of situational ethics: nobody should have the ability to tamper with the vote…unless he’s someone who will tamper with it in our interests. Which really exposed the thinking of the crowd on the issue, in spite of the speaker’s efforts to remain non-partisan and treat the matter as a “patriotic issue” affecting all citizens, regardless of party or district.
David Brin looks at the SETI community’s new obsession, and wonders if it’s such a great idea to do this without discussion.
…unlike the probable desecration of Atlas Shrugged, we don’t have to wait to find out how Spider Robinson’s vandalization of Heinlein has turned out.
This hyperbolic review is particularly delicious:
Well, it did fail miserably and while no doubt done with the best of intentions, this thing, I don’t know what it is — it is most certainly not a novel — titled “Variable Star” is an express bus to literary hell and has single handedly set back SF three-quarters of a century. I have no idea what its author was trying to accomplish here, nor do I care. The result has entered whole new dimensions of awfulness hitherto unexplored, a parallel universe of grossness where intelligent life can never hope to arise. I wish I could close my eyes and make it go away, but it will not.
Why am I not surprised to find that, in writing a “Heinlein book”, Robinson injected his own hobbyhorses and political slant?
Having referenced Atlas Shrugged in the previous post, I’m reminded of the scene in which Dagny, at a party, hears on the radio what sounds like Halley’s Fourth, but which she quickly realizes is a “reinterpretation” of the composer’s farewell masterpiece by a lesser artist…one whose evident aim is to make a name for himself by defacing a work whose greatness he knows he can never match. It’s sad to think of what a wasted opportunity this project was, and what a decent SF writer might have made of it — ideally setting it entirely within the canonical Future History, and exploring themes and events in that fictional universe that Heinlein himself only hinted at, instead of turning it into an incongruous soapbox for his or her own contemporary politics, an exhibition of puerile humor, and (in spite of Heinlein’s famous attitudes on the subject) a cameo for his or her own religion?
Thinking of what SF writers I respect — such as Niven, Pournelle, Akin, or Card — might have done with the same source material makes me wonder: what might other writers do with a Future History bible? That is, what sort of entirely original stories (i.e. not from Heinlein outlines and notes) might other writers produce if the Future History universe were opened to them, as Niven has opened the “Man-Kzin Wars” period of the Known Space universe to other writers? Various authors could be tasked to write their own stories in their own styles, not claiming to be “new Heinlein works” but simply based in the Future History timeline, using the same events and technologies, and reflecting a similar worldview. That would make for writing worth reading…which, unfortunately, this less-than-a-pastiche from Spider Robinson evidently is not.
Looks like Angelina Jolie’s Atlas Shrugged has a screenwriter.
Wallace is not only the writer of Braveheart and the writer-producer of We Were Soldiers (making me wonder what role Mel Gibson might play in this film), but the writer and executive producer of that cinematic gem, Pearl Harbor. Not sure what to expect with a record like that.
[hat tip: Aaron_J]
The snowstorm here on Tuesday afternoon seems to have screwed up my internet connection, hence the lack of posting and followup to comments.
And Qwest had just gotten my land line back into service on [last] Sunday, too. Along with T-Mobile’s lousy cell service, it’s just one more reason that anyone who needs to communicate reliably shouldn’t live in the mountains.
MONDAY UPDATE: Qwest at least fixed both the DSL and land line problems quickly…by 11:00am today, after a problem call at around 4pm yesterday (Sunday). Now if I could just get T-Mobile to improve their signal strength so I would no longer have to rely on things like cloud density, migrating birds, and the surface reflectivity of the cliff behind the house to bounce my calls to a cell tower…
Who ever thought we’d be needing these again: Nuclear War Survival Skills. Fun for the whole family!
This chapter in particular brings back childhood memories. If the SLBMs don’t get you, the ICBMs will get you a few minutes later — and if you survive those, well, watch out for the bombers, which will arrive just about the time you think it’s safe to poke your head out of the basement bunker.
Ahh, the good old Eighties…makes me want to dust off those old Betamax copies of The Day After and Testament.
I guess this means Foleymas is over. Unless the Dems have something truly awful still hiding in their October Surprise bag, NK is going to be the dominant issue from now through the election. Which on the one hand is good, because it’s a serious issue for a change, but on the other hand it’s bad because, well, it’s a serious issue…NK now has nukes, and if they are actually weaponized, they can proliferate them at will.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Iran now followed suit (whether or not it would be an indigenously-produced device or not is beside the point.)
(Not to be flippant, but I wonder how long it will be before the moonbats start barking about how a) the US pushed NK into this demonstration with its provocative military posture and threats and sanctions and the like, and b) Rove and Bush must have coordinated the test to take Foley’s “Masturgate” scandal off the front pages. Or both at the same time…somehow.)
MRO’s CRISM imaging spectrometer instrument has been activated. Shouldn’t be long before we start getting some really interesting information about the planet’s surface composition:
CRISM will look for areas that were wet long enough to leave a mineral signature on the surface, searching for the spectral traces of aqueous and hydrothermal deposits, and mapping the geology, composition, and stratigraphy of surface features. The imager will map areas on the martian surface as small as 60 feet (about 18 meters) across, with the orbiter at its average altitude of about 190 miles (300 kilometers).
Offering greater capability to map spectral variations than any similar instrument sent to another planet, CRISM will read 544 ?colors? in reflected sunlight to detect minerals in the surface. Its highest resolution is about 20 times sharper than any previous look at Mars in near-infrared wavelengths. By identifying sites most likely to have contained water, CRISM data will help determine the best potential landing sites for future Mars missions seeking fossils or even traces of life.
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