A00211 - Book of the Month for the Month of November 2023: Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubinstein: The Descent into Hell
A few months ago, my middle daughter sent me a text message and asked that I listen to the following podcast:
Podcast | Mary-Jane Rubenstein, "Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion… (newbooksnetwork.com)
After listening to the podcast, I was thoroughly depressed and felt like resigning from Star Fleet Academy. I encourage all who can to listen to the podcast to do so and to contemplate what this means for the future of mankind. As my middle daughter explained, the issues set forth in the podcast are some of the profound reasons why I only have fur babies as grandchildren.
As for those who are reading the book and pondered the connection between Astrotopia and Native American Heritage Month, well Professor Rubinstein makes the connection between the current space quest with the spirit of Manifest Destiny that defined America and with the spirit of divine command of conquest that was previously mandated in the land of Canaan. As Professor Rubinstein writes;
"If you think back to the creation stories in Genesis, you'll remember that this God makes human beings in his image, telling them to "be fruitful and multiply" and to have "dominion" over the rest of creation. According to these stories, humans are created creators. They are told to continue the work God began by ruling and filling the Earth. As we have seen, however, the biblical narrative and its Christian interpreters prefer some of these human beings over others. God allegedly gives Canaan to Israel, Africa to Portugal, and America to Spain. So it's not just that "humanity" believes it has dominion over the "fish of the sea" and the "birds of the air" and the mammals of the Earth; it's that certain humans believe they have dominion over all other humans as well." (page 61)
"Considering the raw, undeveloped, and effectively unpopulated nature of the westward expanse, the original "manifest destiny" editorial assured its audience that the United States could subsume the continent's "untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past." This is the same sort of "clear conscience" that space colonizers now assure us we can have for real this time, because after all, there's nothing there to disturb. But one might ask the spaceniks the same question we'd ask the frontiersmen and conquistadores of yore: if there's nothing there, then why do you want the land in the first place?
"The answer, of course, is and was and always will be "resources". Gold, spices, fur, ore, helium-3, hydrogen, platinum, animal flesh, human labor -- whatever might open a new economy for the benefit of the extractors. As far as the American settlers were concerned, Indigenous nations "had let their resources go to waste," neglecting or even refusing to "own" and "improve" the land as God directed Adam when he told him to "till the earth and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). And so as the West was "won," it was lost to its original caretakers, who were driven from their ancestral lands onto reservations. Even these areas were reduced and relocated when white settlers found them to be more valuable than they'd initially calculated. Cut off from their land, unable to move freely, corralled with rival nations, and often forced to convert, wear European dress, abandon their languages, and attend English schools, Indigenous Americans faced attempted extinction at the hands of the people of God.
"You shall annihilate them -- the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites -- just as the Lord your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods (Deuteronomy 20;17-18)." (pages 66-67)
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One of the sad facts of studying history is that you see patterns occurring over and over again. The conquest of Canaan, the conquest of the American West, the conquest of Palestine, and now the proposed conquest of space, all seem to repeat a pattern that in the long run does not produce the world of peace or lasting prosperity that such conquests were designed to achieve,
Something to contemplate during this Native American Heritage Month while we watch Gaza descend into Hell.
Peace? ... I can only pray,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
November 8, 2023
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Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Mar 3, 2023Astrotopia
The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 2022
We are in the midst of a new space race that pairs billionaire space barons with governments in an effort to exploit the cosmos for human gain. While Elon Musk and SpaceX work to establish a human presence on Mars, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin work toward mining operations on the moon, missions to asteroids to extract resources, and millions of people living in rotating near-Earth satellite dwellings. Despite the differences in their visions, these two billionaires share a core utopian project: the salvation of humanity though the colonization of space. But we have already seen the destructive effects of this frontier spirit in the centuries-long history of European colonialism.
Philosopher of religion and space enthusiast Mary-Jane Rubenstein wants to pull back the curtain on the not-so-new myths these space barons are peddling. In Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race (U Chicago Press, 2022), she explains why these myths are so problematic and offers a vision for how we might approach the exploration of space in ways that don't reproduce the atrocities of humanity's previous colonial endeavors.
Listen to more episodes on:
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To:
Sent: Friday, November 3, 2023 at 08:24:50 AM PDT
Subject: Book of the Month for the Month of November 2023: Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubinstein
November is Native American Heritage Month, also known as National American Indian Heritage Month
In recognition of the month, I had planned on reading Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo. However, a book that has been on mind for some time seems to be more appropriate for this Native American Heritage Month.
The book I have chosen for this Native American Heritage Month is Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race by Mary-Jane Rubinstein. I think you will find the connection once you begin reading the book.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 04:19:31 AM PDT
Subject: Book of the Month for the Month of October 2023: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: The Book of Everett, Volume One
Over the years, I have had many Zen daily calendars which contain quotes that tend to have a Zen theme. During those years, I have tried to collect the daily quotes that particularly resonated with me. They have been a personal collection that I call The Book of Everett. There are now two volumes The Book of Everett. Volume One of The Book of Everett happens to contain three quotes from Marcus Aurelius, the Philosopher/Emperor of the Roman Empire. The three quotes in my book are
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
"He who sees what is now has seen all things, whatsoever comes to pass from everlasting and whatsoever shall be unto everlasting time."
"When you arise in the mornning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ... "
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Over the weekend, while living amongst the Joshua Trees, I finished reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. There is a great deal to contemplate in this book. Two of the segments that I include are
"40. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.
"41. "You are a little soul bearing about a corpse" as Epictetus used to say."
"42. It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to subsist in consequence of change."
Meditations, Book Four.
"13. I am composed of the formal and the material. Neither of them will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence out of non-existence. Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever. And by consequence of such a change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever in the other direction. For nothing hinders us from saying so, even if the universe is administered according to definite periods."
Meditations, Book Five
There is so much more to say. However, it is October 31 and I must get ready for November. However, before leaving, in response to a query from my Victorville cousins, "Yes, I believe in immortality." And to all one of the more recent additions to The Book of Everett is this quote from Richard Jefferies:
It is eternity now, I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it; as the butterfly in the light-laden air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 03:55:53 AM PDT
Subject: Book of the Month for the Month of October 2023: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Last week, I finished reading Surviving Death by Leslie Kean, and on September 30, I finished reading The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel. Surviving Death was interesting but a bit disappointing in not exploring the rather abundant documented afterlife beliefs and practices of other cultures and the prolific afterlife beliefs of many established religions. In conjunction with these worldwide beliefs and practices, it seems clear to me that there is life after death. And The Song of Bernadette simply confirmed that an afterlife consciousness can continue to exist thousands of years after the body is gone.
It is now October 17, and there is not much time left in the month. So, for October 2023, I have decided to read a small book by a very important man. The book for the Month of October 2023 is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Those who venture into its pages will understand why.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
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