Antinuclear

Military mansplaining dispels any nonsensical ideas about “the sanctity of space”

Australian Independent Media, 31 Dec 24,  https://theaimn.net/military-mansplaining-dispels-any-nonsensical-ideas-about-the-sanctity-of-space/

Doncha love mansplaining? It simplifies everything, takes away your worries, and you can now complacently forget about any silly way-out anxieties that you might have had about technological progress.

As our military defenders develop advanced and artificial intelligence weaponry for war in space , USA Air Force secretary, and former military contractor, Frank Kendall mansplained all this perfectly for us:

Mr. Kendall said when he first came into office, there was an understandable aversion to weaponizing space, but that now the debate about “the sanctity or purity of space” is effectively over.

“Space is a vacuum that surrounds Earth,” Mr. Kendall said. “It’s a place that can be used for military advantage and it is being used for that. We can’t just ignore that on some obscure, esoteric principle that says we shouldn’t put weapons in space and maintain it.

The threat is there. It’s a domain we have to be competitive in.”

One might ponder on where this threat comes from. It seems pretty clear to me that macho military men of one nation, for example the USA, devise killing machines, and then macho men of another nation, for example China, react by devising killer machines. Then the USA men have to go one better and so on. The cleverness of macho men is the original threat.

Of course many men do not have this blinkered macho attitude to exploiting land, sea, and now space, for weaponry that damages no only humans, but other species, and indeed, the whole ecosphere. Unfortunately these many other men are also not so good at confidently mansplaining the ideas that they might have – about caring for the ecosphere, about negotiation as an alternative to war. That takes a lot of hard work, to present those ideas, and they tend to do it in a careful way, rather than talking down to the rest of us..

It is really a lot easier and simpler to decide that becoming the top killer is the way to solve differences: much harder to really think about solving the problems.

The “sanctity and purity of space”. Where did Kendall get that from?

Well, the phrase contains both a religious and environmental significance. Originally from a very spiritual poem – it has caught the imagination of many – as a theme to respect the beauty of the sky, the environment, and our role as custodians of our ecosphere.

This kind of spiritual waffle is anathema to the mansplaining military macho men.

For one thing, it involves some complicated ideas that they probably can’t understand, with their one-track adversarial thinking. To give just one example: light pollution from spacecraft disrupts the lives of not only many tiny species like moths, but also of birds and sea turtles.

Then there are ethical questions – about space vehicles, weapons, debris crashing in various locations, including neutral, uninvolved countries. And, most concerning of all is the newest technology, artificial-intelligence-enhanced fighter jets and space-based warfare. Missile-carrying robot drones with A.I.-enhanced software will be able to independently decide on flying routes, and on identifying and attacking enemy targets. Robots will be able to make decisions on whom to kill.

The phrase that Mr Kendall wanted to discredit comes from a famous poem – High Flight – A Pilot’s Prayer by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. The author was a religious man, who died at 19, in World War 2. The poem was first read out in a church, right opposite the White House. Written in a romantic style, this poem has inspired many to pond on the writer’s thought:

“with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space”

I have often thought that art of all kinds does point the way for positive human development, and just phrases like that one from John Gillespie Magee, Jr. can have a powerful influence, No wonder that war-obsessed men are keen to discredit such poems.

If people think of space as a place of beauty, mystery and wonder, they are not likely to be in favour of unrestrained weapons development, and the $215 billion budget overseen by Mr Kendall for ever-advancing weaponry. Whereas if we accept the idea that space is just “a vacuum – a place that can be used for military advantage” , well, the arms race is all OK, and we could be on the way to omnicide.

January 1, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized