Fantasy in the Pro-Space Movement

Abstract

Recent psychoanalytic theory has often argued that the unconscious is hidden in plain sight. This may point us in the direction of the fundamental truth of the pro-space movement; that it is a movement whose orientation is towards furthering the human exploration, development and settlement of outer space. This is, of course, written on the outside of the movement, so to speak. But it is easily missed. For when the movement engages in political action of whatever sort, the one thing it cannot say is that the human exploration, development and settlement of outer space has value in and of itself. The legitimation of these programmes must always come from the outside, from values extraneous to outer space development itself. In briefing activists, the head of one organization alluded to the view that it was dangerous when lobbying to talk enthusiastically about space development itself. Instead, the social, political and economic rationale was to be emphasized. The movement spends a great deal of time rehearsing this rationale internally, with conference sessions dedicated to ‘The top ten reasons to go into space’ and so on. This advice was couched in terms of not being too radical (for example, not using the word ‘colonization’) or too kooky (not wearing fake Spock ears when meeting congressmen, as had happened in the past, for example), lest congressional staffers’ eyes should glaze over.