Our Infantile Public Culture
After the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia and the deaths of her crew, more and more voices are calling for more and more safety precautions, even for making safety “our number one concern.” Today’s Washington Post ran an article on page 1 with a shocking (shocking!) headline: “Experts Warned of Budget Cuts, Safety Concerns.” Those are just more signs that we may be entering an age of infantile decadence and systematically irrational attitudes toward risk. Space travel is dangerous. Launching into space on top of a giant bomb is risky. Flying back into the atmosphere faster than a bullet is hazardous. Grow up, America.
[Just in case anyone assumes that I favor state involvement in space, I don’t. But whether funded voluntarily or through organized theft, space exploration yields benefits only at a cost. The cost of a choice is the most highly valued alternative forgone. How much would advocates of more safety be willing to give up in order to diminish the risks to crew members? If we actually made the safety of crew members “our number one concern,” meaning that it trumped all other concerns, it would mean the end of all forms of exploration. But remember, that would have costs, too, such as forgoing all of the benefits from exploration. All action entails costs, even the action that looks like inaction.]