Can America think big anymore? The crash landing of our cosmic confidence

I didn’t want to be an astronaut when I grew up.
I figured by this time, I’d be a ship captain like Hans Solo and the term ‘astronaut’ would be historical.
There would be galaxies to explore. Aliens to pal around with. Cool, new ships to pilot.
I’d be an explorer for a new era.
That’s why it’s so discouraging to see that NASA is retiring the shuttle Atlantis and will end manned missions into space. The four American astronauts are now on their way back to Earth from the International Space Station, and when they return, a dream will have landed.
Obama and Congress can talk all they want about hazy plans to send missions into deep outer space, but that’s dependent on if we can figure out how to live together on this planet first.
Or, at the very least, in this country.
The saddest thing is that no one seems to care all that much. The only thing Americans are thinking big about are themselves.
Just look at the technological innovations we value. Are they rockets and manned missions into space?
No.
Want to know why? Because they haven’t found anything worth exploiting out in space yet, no planet with giant reserves of oil or nacho cheese. No one wants to fund an expensive program with lofty ambitions. When more practical concerns demand our attention, I fully agree funding something like the space program should be cut. It’s just sad that all these problems -- power grabs, climate change, financial meltdowns, earthquakes, warfare, welfare, abortions and Michelle Bachman’s presidential bid -- so consume our energies that we don’t dream big anymore.
Instead, our technology -- and our mentality -- goes sideways. We can play Tetris on our cell phones while driving, watch episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle” on an iPad in an airport and have face-to-face video Skype sessions with Mongolians.
Never before has information -- words and images -- been so easily disseminated across the world.
Meanwhile, the American empire crumbles.
Technology is all socially driven these days. It’s not shooting up in the air anymore, it’s ringing in our hands or flashing in front of our faces.
While social networking tools like Facebook have been credited with helping with the so-called Arab Spring revolutions in the Mideast recently, just how important are these technologies to mankind?
The only thing we’re using them for is to socialize. A new way for a single dude to pick up chicks. A new way to share a recipe with mom. Amusements and frivolities.
These proliferate with reckless abandon while the space program, once the innovator in technology, continues to lose relevance in our nation’s collective imagination. It therefore loses funding.
There’s an easy explanation for this: humans are narcissistic and vain. For the most part, we only care about ourselves, then our families, then our friends. We’re usually not walking around with Big Ideas about the fate of humankind and the great mysteries of existence that could be answered out in the deep blackness of space.
Most of us are walking around thinking about where to eat lunch or what gossip to Tweet from our smart phones.
Remember, all these superfluous gadgets are at the mercy of the satellites orbiting the earth.
And those satellites got there by thinking big.