Failed prophecy

From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra to
the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero whom
every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

Hop David wrote:

From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra to
the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero whom
every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.

Kennedy assasination, Vietnam, Nixon . . . pick any two; they'd be enough.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
Remove invalid nonsense for email.

Hop David wrote in
:

From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra to
the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero whom
every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.


You mean you have never dreamt about being a successful astronaut? Not even
when you were young?

Shame on you! Boooo!



FYI:
The ratio of young boys who dream of being an astronaut to the number of
flying spaceship pilots is about 100 million to one. Higher than for any
other career choice, except possibly "i wanna be president of america"
(side note: Recent statistics trends show a close correlation between the
decline of this lastmentioned dream and the improvement in mental health
standards among the children of the usa)

Marvin wrote:
Hop David wrote in
:


From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra to
the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero whom
every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.



You mean you have never dreamt about being a successful astronaut? Not even
when you were young?

Oh, I did. But I question whether every boy does.


Shame on you! Boooo!



FYI:
The ratio of young boys who dream of being an astronaut to the number of
flying spaceship pilots is about 100 million to one. Higher than for any
other career choice, except possibly "i wanna be president of america"

Seems to me gangsta rappers and professional athletes are the heroes of
today's youth.


--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 12:45:27 -0600, Herb Schaltegger wrote:

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.

Kennedy assasination, Vietnam, Nixon . . . pick any two; they'd be enough.

Besides, zeit has a way of doing that to zeitgeist!

Hop David wrote in
:



Marvin wrote:
Hop David wrote in
:


From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra
to the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero
whom every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.



You mean you have never dreamt about being a successful astronaut?

Seems to me gangsta rappers and professional athletes are the heroes
of today's youth.



Aren't they one in the same? Neither one tends to have an ounce of
morality or dignity let alone act as role models for kids today. When we
(society) worships the entertainer and ignores the real heroes in this
world, we continue to splinter into a self indulging chaotic asylum.

Sorry....that subject always causes me to break out my soapbox.

CWR

"Herb Schaltegger"
Kennedy assasination, Vietnam, Nixon . . . pick any two; they'd be enough.

So true, Herb.

"I've always wanted to meet interesting people from exotic cultures....and
kill them." FULL METAL JACKET.

Has it failed? After WWI war surplus machines were used by barnstormers to
tour the nation. There tours created public excitment, interest and profit.
When was space exploration's barnstorming days? Apollo, which did create
ecitement was strangled in its crib. HAd th shuttle flown twice or more a
month from two different pads (cali, and florida) it might have sparked
interest but as actually flown the shuttle is almost designed not to create
interest. Things are only a little better in the private sector. Unmanned
rocketrs were not deregualted until 1986 and the first privatly owned manned
space craft are the x-prize suborbitals, which have yet to fly.

"Cold War Relic" wrote in message
. 199.17...
Hop David wrote in
:



Marvin wrote:
Hop David wrote in
:


From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra
to the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero
whom every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.



You mean you have never dreamt about being a successful astronaut?

Seems to me gangsta rappers and professional athletes are the heroes
of today's youth.



Aren't they one in the same? Neither one tends to have an ounce of
morality or dignity let alone act as role models for kids today. When we
(society) worships the entertainer and ignores the real heroes in this
world, we continue to splinter into a self indulging chaotic asylum.

Sorry....that subject always causes me to break out my soapbox.

CWR

"Hop David" wrote in message
...
From page 99 of Heinlein's _Orphans Of The Sky_, 1st published 1941:

"From the time that the first rocket made the little jump from Terra to
the Moon, the spaceship pilot has been the standard romantic hero whom
every boy wished to emulate."

Sadly wrong. But that's the way it ought to be!

I'm still wondering how and why our zeitgeist went down the toilet.

--
.... Apollo and later the shuttle showed everyone you have to be an
engineer to have any real chance to "Bravely go where no man has gone
before." The work that engineers do can be romantic but engineers themselves
are not. But then what could you expect from generations of school kids who
cannot do basic math without a calculator.

Dudhorse wrote:

But then what could you expect from generations of school kids who
cannot do basic math without a calculator.

What could we expect? Greatness. The ability to do math in one's head
when a simple and dirt-cheap electronic adding machine is readily
available is not a particualrly important skill. The loss of dreams and
glory are not the result of calculators, but of ****ty leaders and a
lazy public that learned that it can vote money for itself out of the
treasury, and which has determiend that safety and luxury are more
important than liberty.

--
Scott Lowther, Engineer
Remove the obvious (capitalized) anti-spam
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