Look Homeward Angel

Look Homeward Angel (con.)

Can you think of a single area of your life that is not affected by energy?

- Transportation
- Communication
- Food Production and Preparation
- Manufacturing
- Heating
- Lighting
- Construction

Can you imagine a world without energy problems? Picture sufficient food for all, grown in all parts of the world, heating and lighting available to everyone, adequate housing, efficient mass transit systems in metropolitan areas, unlimited communication potential. What would a world without energy problems be like? I think it would be a different world. I believe it would be a better world. I know that it is a world within our grasp.

Is the development of space technology worthwhile if it will help to achieve energy independence not only for the United States but for the world? Is it? Think about it. Answer this question to yourself. Is the potential of complete energy independence worth the investment needed for the industrialization of space and ultimately for space settlement? It seems so to me. I could support that goal for this reason alone. But I'm not through yet.

My third reason for supporting this program relates to the way that it will affect our image of ourselves and of our future. Stop and think for a moment. Does your image of the future affect your daily life? Does it? Why are you here? Is it because the idea of space exploration and settlement excites you or concerns you? It doesn't matter; your vision of a potential future, positive or negative, has affected the way you're spending today. But that's obvious.

If someone has so little faith in himself that he gets tattooed with the words "Born to Lose," do you think that that image will affect the way he lives his life?

Today we're hearing a lot about people being "born again." They talk about accepting Christ as their savior and how they have been forgiven and are free to start again and build a new life. Has their image of themselves and their future been changed, and has this affected their lives?

Is this true for societies too? Is the health of our society directly related to our image of what we might expect in the future, to the ultimate goals that we have as a society? How important is the image, the vision? Visions of the future are the engines of societies, the energy that drives them to succeed. What I'm talking about is a people's response to a vision of what the future can be. A image of a future that is as far reaching and challenging as any of the great visions of the past, the type of vision that moves a society and the people within it. When the people begin to believe a vision of this magnitude everything is changed and the world is never the same again.

O. W. Markley of the Stanford Research Institute said, "The development of our societies has been in large part dependent on the creative vision of the great members of the human race, and of the images of the future of the important cultures throughout history." Malachi Martin, a Jesuit priest and student of why societies succeed or fail, in his book The New Castle said, "The greatest heights of culture and civilization were always fashioned, not within the molds of sociological cause and effect, but within a transcendent vision." Finally, the late Ed Lindaman, a past director of program planning for the design and manufacture of the Apollo Spacecraft and President of Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington said, "The believer not only interprets history but, above all, he changes it, because he believes, because he hopes."

The vision, or image of the future is a society's conception or belief in a time that is yet to come. It can be either positive or negative, but, in either case, it must be an exaggeration of what would be reasonably expected. It is either a hope or a fear that lives in the minds of the societal group, both collectively and individually. When the image of the future is projected clearly it is leading the society into a future that is truly their conception of tomorrow. It is a promise of what the future will be like within the life time of the society. It is the hope of what that future can be like within my lifetime. In other words, the society expects to see the actualization of the vision; the individuals within the society believe they will play a part in the realization of the vision, and they, as individuals, hope to live to see it happen.