The Man on the Moon

We put a man on the moon didn’t we? In 1967, or was it 68.

Does it matter? You can’t even remember the date.

Of course it matters . It was a great human achievement; “a great step for mankind.”

Why?

Why what?

Why was it so great?

Because it was of course, you dummy! Think of all that skill; all that intelligence,

all that technology. Getting a man into space. Getting someone into a totally alien environment. Incredible!

Incredible? It’s incredible how dummies like you go on about it.

I’m not a dummy. The whole world agrees with me and it’s just you. You have to be the odd one out.

And that makes me wrong? It was always the majority who supported Napoleon, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, and all the other dictators. They called you a dummy if you didn’t. Or they locked you up. But who’s the dummy now? What about Socrates in Ancient Athens and Jesus in Jerusalem. They were in the minority. Both were right in the end.

I still think that putting a man on the moon is a great achievement. I still think it will be remembered as one of the great human acts of progress.

Progress? You call that progress?

Of course it’s progress. Onward and upward. Conquering space is important, it’s the last frontier.

So you put a dozen assorted people, a cockatoo, a hamster, two kittens and a cage full of white mice on Alpha Centauri Five. So what?

So what?

Yes! What would you have achieved?

You would have found out more about the universe; that’s what. Finding out is important.

Conquering space is important.

Good grief! This could go on for ever. You want to conquer space by putting assorted pets and humans on assorted planets and you call that progress. Listen! We can’t even get things right on this planet. A man jumping about on the moon in a spacesuit is no big deal.

What is a big deal then. Go on you have been criticising all this time. What do you think would be a great achievement?

I’ll tell you. Making the deserts fertile; that would be something. It would be something useful. Finding a cure for cancer; that would be something great. Getting all people educated so that they enjoyed art and literature and poetry and could live above and not below the poverty line. The would be an achievement.