Obligatory, 7/26/15

The title "Ramblings of an old man" came to mind, but never mind.  This post will be free form with thoughts coming from wherever.

Just now I was thinking about high school, when I was in a creative writing class.  The assignment was to write a short story, and I wrote one about a Mars expedition.  What they found when they got there was that there was a subterranean civilization--- which was forced to go underground because they ruined the surface through wars and environmental degradation.  Yeah, the story was "under the influence" of the the leftists, I confess.  After all, I was just a kid.  The teacher said "write about your own experiences some day".  In a way, on this blog, I have.  Not that anybody is interested, mind you.

We could have gone to Mars in the eighties for real.  We had the Saturn V rocket, plus a nuclear upper stage that could have nearly doubled the payload.  Basically, the Constellation program that Obama ended was a Saturn class rocket that would have done the same thing and in the same way.

The excuse was that it would have cost too much.  Well, that's nonsense.  They have spent more money NOT GOING than what it would have cost to have gone.  They already had the hardware and much of the know how and the facilities in place.  This is how our government went wrong.  That and the molten-salt reactor non-event that also could have been.

But back to my short story from high school.  Philip K. Dick wrote something similar perhaps, that became Total Recall, but at that time, I didn't know about him.  Actually, I read some Robert Heinlein when I was in elementary school.  It may have been influenced somewhat by that.

I did not ever consider doing non-fiction because I never did develop any story telling skills.  Perhaps I should have.  That story was fairly original.  Although it may have had some influences, it was original and with an original idea.  What it lacked was some maturity that comes with experience.  Shall I try it again?

Who knows? Dick seemed to be interested in psychology.  Although I am too, I am also interested in achievement, and advancement.  If I were to write a story now, perhaps it would be about the roads not taken.  I can relate that to my own life.  Imagine what kind of life I would have now if I had done things a bit differently.  Hoo boy, that's a question for you right there.

Instead of a civilization pushing out to the stars, we have one that is regressing into backwardness.  Those two very bad decisions may have been the beginning of the downfall.  Or the downfall could have began sooner.  Once the West lost confidence in itself, it began to go into decline.  It's decline can be definitely charted at about 1968, or perhaps sooner, depending upon your theoretical inclinations.  ( By the way, if you go to that link just above a sentence or two, you'll see that BBC blocked the video.  Why?  Isn't BBC a public entity?  Why would they block this?  Is there something they don't want people to see? )

True to the type, I am going to ramble a bit more like the old man that I am.  I was read the Gospel of John yesterday.  A verse mentioned that god was the Spirit of Truth.  Could it be that Satan is the Spirit of Untruth?  Hasn't the West fallen under the influence of Satan?  Think Political Correctness there, sonny.  Just a thought.