Just because Woodstock and the first Moon landing occurred in 1969 doesn't mean they have a relationship. by GT Slade
(libertarian)
Monday, June 7, 2010
A dilemma arose during the first Beck show of June Tuesday. I've been watching since his first Fox News presentation. I am no fanatical Glenn Beck fan, but he presents most enlightening facts, and I like facts almost as much as History.
Tuesday, Beck presented a theory that the year 1969 marked a split of some kind, in the social fabric perhaps, between those who cared more about the first lunar landing and those who cared more about the Woodstock Festival, occurring July 20th and August 15-18 respectively.
I forgot what year the moon landing occurred. I've seen it replayed a hundred thousand times, probably did not see it live, although I might have if the television was on because every station would have covered it. Like most races, the space race bored me — a jingoistic waste of money initiated by JFK. He promised "we" would put a man on the moon and "we" did. So what?
Space exploration is promoted as scientific research, but really it is about national pride. Whomever is in power takes credit for successes, although the credit should go to the taxpayers who funded it. With raggedy roads damaging our land-based vehicles and numerous infrastructure problems, it's disconcerting seeing billions vanish into thin air. Yes, research is conducted there, which could be done cheaper on Earth.
Woodstock was totally different, a three-day concert gone awry. I was at a friend's home in nearby Neversink. Her dad wouldn't let us attend, having heard that there was no water and other infrastructure problems at the site. We stayed home and watched the CBS comedy lineup. That's what you did in Neversink. The guys who devised Woodstock were in over their heads. Although they sold at least 186,000 tickets, most there did not pay. Huge attendance, but everyone got to see some of the hottest bands of the day. I'm sure there were drugs and sex; I hope it was like Spring Break in August without the beach or drinking water. There was nudity. Touted as a festival of peace and love, it was somewhat successful on many levels — certainly never duplicated. I believe there were other moon landings, but only one Woodstock, despite efforts at emulation.
Granted, the moon landing was historic, as was passing cockamamie health care legislation, but the voyage itself was an expensive publicity stunt with no bands. Although it did occur on the moon. Woodstock was rejected by the town whose name it bears and wound up in Bethel.
As alluded to, Beck recognizes two groups: the Woodstock people and the moon landing people. The dilemma is that neither of those events mean much to me, say compared to the invention of the CD player and digital recording, which vastly impacted my life. The phrase "Woodstock nation" was coined, but it was a media fabrication, like the Sexual Revolution and Fox Nation.
Beck made much of Woodstock being muddy, unlike the moon, which was barren. Woodstock did not funnel billions of taxpayer dollars into a vanity project that could have funded something worthwhile, such as medical research, feeding the poor, delaying Social Security's collapse, or teaching politicians how to read bills.
Like history? Harken back to the pharaohs and their pyramids. These engineering feats continue to be admired, but even inspiring a Bananarama song doesn't excuse the slave labor or the absurdity of constructing an oversize gravestone to perpetuate the myth that the pharaohs were gods. Turns out they weren't even related to gods.
Men walked on the moon (we trust), with no tangible benefits or earth-shattering changes. Supposedly, it proved that the United States' system worked better than the Soviet Union's. Yet, the big government project was much like the Soviet space program and five-year plans, except it succeeded. I was raised in a country where flying to the moon calls to mind Alice Kramden. Voters were not consulted on accelerating the space race. In the frigid environment nurtured by the era's politicians, the news of Sputnik beating the US into space was frightening. Imagine if the Russians got to the moon first!
It wouldn't have mattered.
Don't get me wrong. I do not oppose space exploration or scientific research, I just have reservations. If there was a benefit to be derived in space, private industry would be there. If it is a sinkhole of spending, with no payoff, government is there with palms outstretched for our money. Say what you will about Pop music, no one forces you to pay for it, although it is beneficial to society. Just a thought.
Here's another. Glenn may be spending too much time with culture worrier Bill O'Reilly.
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Posted By: Lew Cypher
Date: June 7, 2010 05:47:56 PM
Wow! Here we are writing and reading on an internet powered by the technology generated by Space Race and you want to assert that the Space Program yielded no benefits. All of the space gear, launch vehicles and support electronics of that era had a direct impact on the technological advancements of the era.
Of course, it was the garage entrepeneurial efforts of people such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs that really brought market forces to bear on the new age of cheap, easy access to electronics. Nevertheless, it was the arms and space race of the 1960s that made people and ideas such as those of Gates and Jobs possible. The rule of intervening opportunity reshaped the world as quickly as new opportunities emerged. The invention of the personal computer and public access to the internet simply subplanted the government-run technology race with a consumer-driven technology race instead. Virtual space rather than Outer Space is now the techology goal of the human race.
Posted By: George Dance
Date: June 19, 2010 05:56:19 PM
Beck got the idea from Ayn Rand, whose 1969 essay, "Apollo and Dionysus," used those two events as illustrations of the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy.
