Apr 10, 2023 11:48 PM
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/...xploration
EXCERPTS: . . . The vision is to mine the lunar surface for rocket fuel that can then propel us all the way to Mars — and beyond, as humanity takes its self-appointed place in the stars.
Mary-Jane Rubenstein told me that vision makes her want to throw up. A Wesleyan professor of religion and science in society, she’s the author of the new book Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race.
What’s “religion” doing in that title, and why is a religion professor writing a book about the space program? Rubenstein argues that today’s corporate space race — helmed by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and others who propose to “save” humanity from a dying planet — is actually rehashing old Christian themes that go all the way back to the 15th century, when European Christians colonized the Americas. Remember how Donald Trump described the Artemis mission and eventual settlement of the moon and Mars? He called it “America’s manifest destiny in the stars.”
But as Rubenstein points out, not everyone thinks it’s the moon’s destiny to be strip-mined, or Mars’s destiny to be settled by human colonists. In fact, some believe these celestial bodies should have fundamental rights of their own.
I talked to Rubenstein about the fear of screwing up space like we’ve screwed up Earth: Is that really a fear of trampling on space’s own intrinsic value, or is it more a fear about human nature? A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
[...] Sigal Samuel: There are two words you use to refer to the corporate space race in your book, and the rationale for using those words might not be obvious to readers. You talk about it as “religion” and as “colonial.” Why?
Mary-Jane Rubenstein: What I’m arguing is that the new corporate space race is an extension and intensification of the initial space race of the late ’50s and into the early ’70s. And that that space race is an extension and intensification of the colonial project that settled the Americas.
The journey that Europeans made across the seas to conquer the Americas and then the journey that white-descended Americans made across the North American continent through what’s known as Manifest Destiny gets extended in the mid-20th century as a new frontier is proclaimed to be open, the frontier of outer space. The space race is a new chapter in European-style colonialism — a vertical extension of that colonial project — as an effort to get more land and more resources for an imperial nation.
The colonial project that settled the Americas was underwritten at every major turn by religious language, religious authorities, religious doctrines. Perhaps most profoundly, the reason Spain was able to conquer the New World was that Pope Alexander VI declared that the New World was his to give — and he gave it to Spain. The conquistadors were underwritten by the head of the Roman Catholic Church; therefore God was endorsing the Spanish conquest of the New World.
This language gets taken up in different ways later. You find a claim to land and resources and a justification for destroying indigenous communities, all authorized by biblical claims. North America is understood very early on to be what early preachers will call God’s New Israel. Just as God gave the Land of Canaan to the Israelites on the proviso that they make it a holy land, God was now giving Europeans a new Canaan. The idea is: Go in there, cleanse it of all unholiness and devotion to any other gods, and establish a new kingdom dedicated to the glory of God.
[...] Sigal Samuel: And just to be clear, lest people think this is just a Trump thing, this is very much something that the Biden administration has decided to continue, right?
Mary-Jane Rubenstein: Absolutely. There’s absolutely no difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration when it comes to space.
Sigal Samuel: Some people object to using the word “colonialism” in this context. We think of colonialism as a hugely harmful thing mostly because European colonizers were coming to inhabited lands and destroying indigenous peoples. But if the moon or Mars or space beyond our solar system is uninhabited, how does “colonialism” apply? (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . The vision is to mine the lunar surface for rocket fuel that can then propel us all the way to Mars — and beyond, as humanity takes its self-appointed place in the stars.
Mary-Jane Rubenstein told me that vision makes her want to throw up. A Wesleyan professor of religion and science in society, she’s the author of the new book Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race.
What’s “religion” doing in that title, and why is a religion professor writing a book about the space program? Rubenstein argues that today’s corporate space race — helmed by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and others who propose to “save” humanity from a dying planet — is actually rehashing old Christian themes that go all the way back to the 15th century, when European Christians colonized the Americas. Remember how Donald Trump described the Artemis mission and eventual settlement of the moon and Mars? He called it “America’s manifest destiny in the stars.”
But as Rubenstein points out, not everyone thinks it’s the moon’s destiny to be strip-mined, or Mars’s destiny to be settled by human colonists. In fact, some believe these celestial bodies should have fundamental rights of their own.
I talked to Rubenstein about the fear of screwing up space like we’ve screwed up Earth: Is that really a fear of trampling on space’s own intrinsic value, or is it more a fear about human nature? A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
[...] Sigal Samuel: There are two words you use to refer to the corporate space race in your book, and the rationale for using those words might not be obvious to readers. You talk about it as “religion” and as “colonial.” Why?
Mary-Jane Rubenstein: What I’m arguing is that the new corporate space race is an extension and intensification of the initial space race of the late ’50s and into the early ’70s. And that that space race is an extension and intensification of the colonial project that settled the Americas.
The journey that Europeans made across the seas to conquer the Americas and then the journey that white-descended Americans made across the North American continent through what’s known as Manifest Destiny gets extended in the mid-20th century as a new frontier is proclaimed to be open, the frontier of outer space. The space race is a new chapter in European-style colonialism — a vertical extension of that colonial project — as an effort to get more land and more resources for an imperial nation.
The colonial project that settled the Americas was underwritten at every major turn by religious language, religious authorities, religious doctrines. Perhaps most profoundly, the reason Spain was able to conquer the New World was that Pope Alexander VI declared that the New World was his to give — and he gave it to Spain. The conquistadors were underwritten by the head of the Roman Catholic Church; therefore God was endorsing the Spanish conquest of the New World.
This language gets taken up in different ways later. You find a claim to land and resources and a justification for destroying indigenous communities, all authorized by biblical claims. North America is understood very early on to be what early preachers will call God’s New Israel. Just as God gave the Land of Canaan to the Israelites on the proviso that they make it a holy land, God was now giving Europeans a new Canaan. The idea is: Go in there, cleanse it of all unholiness and devotion to any other gods, and establish a new kingdom dedicated to the glory of God.
[...] Sigal Samuel: And just to be clear, lest people think this is just a Trump thing, this is very much something that the Biden administration has decided to continue, right?
Mary-Jane Rubenstein: Absolutely. There’s absolutely no difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration when it comes to space.
Sigal Samuel: Some people object to using the word “colonialism” in this context. We think of colonialism as a hugely harmful thing mostly because European colonizers were coming to inhabited lands and destroying indigenous peoples. But if the moon or Mars or space beyond our solar system is uninhabited, how does “colonialism” apply? (MORE - missing details)
