What motivates people

If we truly want future generations to explore space, then the government sponsored programs of today should focus on finding rare minerals in nearby space.

If, for instance, an asteroid rich in gold or platinum were discovered and the location marked and known to all, then greed would churn the street lexicon and populations would race to find a way to pioneer this new frontier. Science would be paramount even in the hardscrabble countries that seem permanently locked in strife.

Who would win this race? That’s totally unknown, but the street issues of today would be swept with a new fervor, and the voices that decry the ways of the past will be sidelined by the new possibility of space.

Man did not invent the stone axe in sole honor of past beliefs. The stone axe may have been used to conquer peoples that annoyed him, but the tool itself was invented so man could better utilize the resources of the planet. All tools and all technologies have been invented to utilize resources.

Look at what happened when man first discovered that elements of the periodical table were made of the same stuff, except by variation of this or that atomic particle. The alchemists went to work trying to find a way to turn common elements into gold, and by doing so discovered methods for extracting usable aluminum and making stronger steels. These people were motivated by greed and they ultimately led the flourish of modern technology that we enjoy today.

Greed, although disdained by some as impious and leading to ruin, is actually the reason men find ways to better manipulate the resources offered by our universe. The creation of ideas may be left to the artful, but the implementation of these ideas into usable tools comes by way of everyday people who readily adopt better methods and will clamor against revisionists when those better ways bring value to their lives.

Hence iron tools replaced stone tools, and genetically bred grains replaced the tiny ears of corn that our forefathers ate. And these revolutions in technology improved men’s lives.

But what about today? What street issue is holding the promise of improving lives?

Some people argue that globalization and the force of the free market holds that promise. But they are incorrect to say this.

The ‘free market’ offers improvements BUT only if you can afford them. Only if you can afford health care can you enjoy the free market, and increasingly this is narrowing its range as the greed of invention has become the greed of captive markets. The ownership of everything is falling into the hands of the few and despite the glorious victory over communism, the capitalist system has now enslaved the population in the same manner, with few choices in education and few choices in how you can live.

As a small example of this, Americans cannot move about their free country without paying for an automobile and all the associated expenses. On the other hand, a person cannot walk or ride a bike and compete in the free market today. Although this is not to say that we should return to walking, it is however very important to note that street-knowledge about how we obtain oil and what causes the price to fluctuate is a complete mystery to most people since they have no word in how it’s done … they just know the price has to be paid … and this is powerlessness at its greatest example, which is the combustible that can spark an explosion against the so-called free market, with the only answer as complete collapse of the market system and no alternative response available.

The problem today is that the street has no direction. People know they should get educated and get a job, but down deep this provides nothing for themselves because it offers no bright future for the majority. Most people today are merely getting a job so they can pay the bills, and people clearly recognize this hollowness and that is why there is a revisionist movement afoot to realign everyone around a religious centering. And believe it, there is no greater force of cultural mayhem than people claiming they are doing some havoc in the name of a higher deity.

The very fact there is a rebirth of religious vigor shows we have lost direction as a people. There is no talk on the street about astrophysics or space exploration. Instead we hear of crimes and unrest around the world, and a rendering of threat with nuclear weapons.

The everyday man in America feels his government is corrupt, and that wealth is available only by pay-off and that government-protected companies are using ‘property ownership’ to strangle monthly payments out of every person. People know the profits from the free market are going to the few with little or no payback to them.

And when the government comes with pie-in-sky proposals saying ‘ethanol is the future, and it’s free,’ people intuitive know this is another lie. Even if every American owned a one-acre lot and they planted it full of corn and purchased their own mash-boiler and burned smokey fires every harvest season, they couldn’t produce enough fuel to power their vehicles for a year. There’s not enough new land available to convert America to ethanol without first setting aside all the crops we grow for food. The proposal is ridiculous and people know it.

And what about the promise that America is home to a bountiful supply of oil-shale? The people on the street don’t know enough science to extrapolate what that means, and if they did, could they possibly fathom that rich deposits of this mineral lie beneath property like Dallas, and that we can’t possibly dig up a whole city to get the oil out of the ground.

The people today need a stake in their own lives, and the future eventually has to take us into space, and not just back to the Moon in some fancy over-priced luxury liner destined to find the same rocks we discovered before. This does not captivate the imagination of people, nor contribute anything to their lives.
 
Gene Haynes