Tonight let’s try to keep two distinct thoughts in mind simultaneously.
- Yes, space exploration is a good thing. It’s being pursued jointly by many countries and I’m old enough to remember when two superpowers raced to the moon without sharing one iota of information.
- No, the proportions and the level of enthusiasm in mainstream media over this routine flight (just because one of the astronauts happens to be a Swede) is ridiculous. The world needs less nationalism and flag-waving.
2 comments:
Just browsing through I just have to comment on this post, even if it's old news -
I totally agree on the ridiculousness part (the other part I know too little about to comment I guess...)!
When it was daily news I had an animated discussion with a friend about the completely-blown-out-of-proportion of it all. We both had the very same view on the matter, her workcolleagues sure didn't. When she pointed out a very reasonable view on the matter they practically jumped at her mob-style - I wonder why it's so seemingly difficult for many to handle the opposite view on these kind of matters...?
There are times when one have all the reasons to be nationally proud - or not - but it really never seize to amaze me what an astonishingly large proportion of the population who chose to show some strangely misguided nationalism at these kind of occasions...
Hi Pia. It just goes to show that flag-waving fulfils some basic need for many people. I've got friends I respect a lot who are very nationalistic so it’s definitely not a question of being stupid or old-fashioned – it’s something else. The world of sports provides infinitely many examples.
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