Popular Culture Review 29.2
tunately , of the times in terms of its sexism�one small step for Man�then we also have to ask , even if we expand it to mean that “ humankind ” has now reached the moon , who , exactly , gets to count inside that “ humankind ”? Since the Enlightenment , we have had the tendency to think that tools are value-neutral and our technical achievements are similarly abstract and aloof from the politics of our time . “ Humanity ” has now been to the moon . But is this even true ? Does “ humanity ” really just mean “ whitey ”?
Phase 4 : New Gibbous
To put the point a slightly different way , Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan once sang , “ Man has invented his doom / First step was touching the moon .” When Rolling Stone magazine asked him to elaborate on that , Dylan responded ,
I mean , what ’ s the purpose of going to the moon ? To me , it doesn ’ t make any sense . Now they ’ re gonna put a space station up there , and it ’ s gonna cost , what� $ 600 billion , $ 700 billion ? And who ’ s gonna benefit from it ? Drug companies who are gonna be able to make better drugs . Does that make sense ? Is that supposed to be something that a person is supposed to get excited about ? Is that progress ? I don ’ t think they ’ re gonna get better drugs . I think they ’ re gonna get more expensive drugs .
If we thus approach the moon with a bit of skepticism as to the purity of our intentions , let ’ s also remember the history of why we eventually decided to go there . The reason JFK dared to say that we ’ d be on the moon within a decade was mainly to beat the Soviets .
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