Asri-unix.990
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX
Fri Mar 12 08:03:43 1982
Re: Wilson's High Frontier column
   Sigh. I suppose it's our compensation for having home-grown Ellen Goodman
that Bostonians also have to acknowledge a flaming idiot like Wilson.
Wilson is, like Talleyrand, a lord of the weathervane; he talks libertarian
when anyone might be infringing on his freedom to be a fool but throws
around jabber like "compulsively seditious" when he wants to stomp on the
opposition. I don't mind being called a "no-win pacifist" by canaille like
him; I would much rather see a continuing stalemate than the Pax Americana
that he seems to look forward to.
   Wilson is particularly a fool for believing the Heritage Foundation,
which is devoted to the god-and-devil theory of world affairs. That a
conservative military man endorses this fruitcake idea is no advantage;
in this age very few military men are ever willing to turn down
technological gimcrackery. (I'm beginning to feel that we're on the
wrong side of Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority".)
   So satellites and a space navy from one "side" defeat the other "side"
in a space battle. How do they enforce their victory on the world below?
About all they can do from that height is throw bombs, and they couldn't
even prevent the US and the USSR from wiping out each other with low-flying
weapons---our cruise missiles and George O. Smith's post-Cuba bogie of tramp
freighters with short-range missiles in their holds (to say nothing of
random saboteurs---even high-minded ones as in Joe Haldeman's
"Modest Proposal"). In the meantime, all it takes is one ill-tempered
officer to take a few shots at communications satellites and I expect
we'd really be up for it (anyone have figures on the percent of traffic
that goes through a satellite nowadays?).
   Thirty years ago, Lester del Rey portrayed a deluded heavy trying to
prevent the arming of the first space station. As far as I'm concerned,
that individual was the one true hero of STEP TO THE STARS. I am
fascinated by the parallels to early aviation history---the dreams and
the windy rhetoric alike being eclipsed by nationalist idiots.


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