This last weekend, I read Asimov’s story ‘The Martian Way’, published
in Robot Dreams.
The story tells the early beginnings of humanity’s extraterrestrial
expansion, the beginnings of what will later be the Spacers in Asimov’s
mythos (either that, or the post-Spacer expansion, but I think it’s the
Spacer expansion).
The Martian colony is facing opposition from an Earth politician,
drumming up opposition to what he is casting as ‘waste’ and casting (or
encouraging others to cast) irrational blame on the Mars program for all
manner of Earth ills, from farm droughts to the price of aluminum. In
typical style, Asimov captures something key about the workings of human
societal and political systems:
Digby smiled sourly. ‘Politics isn’t pleasant to explain. Hilder
introduced this bill to set up a committee to investigate waste in space
flight. Maybe three-fourths or more of the General Assembly was against
such an investigation as an intolerable and useless extension of
bureaucracy—which it is. But how could any legislator be against a mere
investigation of waste? It would sound as he had something to fear or to
conceal. It would sound as though he were himself profiting from waste.
Hilder is not afraid of making such accusations, and whether true or
not, they would be a powerful factor with the voters in the next
election. The bill passed.
‘And then there came the question of appointing the members of the
committee. Those who were against Hilder shied away from membership,
which would have meant decisions that would be continually embarassing.
Remaining on the sidelines would make that one much less a target for
Hilder. The result is that I am the only member of the committee who is
outspokenly anti-Hilder and it may cost me re-election.’
Substitute space travel for anything else with an easy villain and
appeals to emotion and security, and it’s a pretty good explanation of
how reason and clear-sighted investigation can get sidelined. No one
wants to appear soft on crime, so the quantity and degree of
criminalization of activity climbs. No one wants to be weak in the face
of terrorism, so we get the Patriot Act, FISA, the defense authorization
bill, etc. A few bold lawmakers speak up and involve themselves against
its excesses (and to them I tip my hat), but the majority sit by and
vote safely against civil liberty, rule of law, and separation of
powers.