My point: (Off-Topic)

by Robot Chickens, Wednesday, February 07, 2018, 12:01 (2270 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Let me be clear: I realize this is all hypocritical. There literally is no ethical consumption in our society. Every product I’ve ever bought is made by a company that undoubtedly has exploited workers and bad policies somewhere.

Whoa! I mean, I totally agree that it's a fallen world and there are bad capitalists, socialists, marxists et al. in every corner of the globe, but that's a helluva statement, cheapLEY.

And maybe slightly hyperbolic, but I don’t think so. I’m not some staunch anti-capitalist. It’s a better system than any that’s been tried so far that I know of. But I genuinely believe that capitalism, at its heart, relies on inequality. Or at least the current actual form of capitalism we utilize. For some to be rich, some others must be poor. Our economy is based on growth and only growth, and I don’t think that’s sustainable.

I'm not sure I agree that there have to be winners and losers, but I agree with your sentiment. We participate in systems where the impact upon others is completely hidden from us. As a tax-paying person in the US, other people decide to use that money in ways I completely disagree with. That can be good and bad, but it's something I cannot escape if I want to have a house and support my family. When I am not in relationship with the people who make the food I eat, the abstract nature of the market transaction allows a system to put pressures on that transaction to minimize costs and maximize profits. Systems of people allow us to do all kinds of things to others that we would not normally do if we saw the impact.

So... I get it.

I don’t hate SpaceX. Contrary to what it may seem from this thread, I don’t hate Elon Musk. I just find it impossible to separate the awesome accomplishment of this launch with the gross feeling I get in my gut when I see that fucking picture of the Tesla in front of Earth. It makes Tesla the focus, and it doesn’t need to be there, and it bugs me that it is there, and it bugs me even more that someone can see it and think “Cool, a car in space!” rather than “But why?” Being in space on its own is worthy of attention, we don’t need to put a Tesla there to make it inspiring.

I don't have a visceral negative reaction to seeing a Tesla orbiting. I recognize it as a gimmick, but I think its a pretty harmless one because it does represent the work of a lot of people in his company. Imagine being one of the designers on that car and now being able to say that your work is in orbit. That's pretty cool. At the same time, you're right. This does hide, or it fails to address, the actual cost of building that car which includes the mistreatment of a lot of people. It's complicated, because our stories are all intertwined with good intentions, mistakes, achievements and different participants that give each telling of that story a different hue. The more we can stomach seeing and accounting for all those shades the better. At the same time, joy is fleeting, and sometimes it's good to celebrate something flawed. It may just provide inspiration to the next innovator and genius to come along and imagine the world with a new horizon of possibilities.