Looks like some yellow-bellied, tenderfoot back East is kinda gettin’ his shorts in a knot:
“Mars could resemble the lawless Wild West if privately funded adventurers seeking to exploit the planet get there before government-backed expeditions, a leading British astronomer said on Wednesday.”
Well, let’s saddle up our hosses and ride the trail, pard’nurrs
I agree compleatly. The only diference is that the astronomer probibly see’s this a sab bad thing.
Colonization of America was fueled mostly by dissatisfaction with British tyranny. (If only your taxes were as low now as they were then.) Mars could be the place where Earthlings flee the scourge of collectivism and other destructive isms. I believe that both Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein guessed that space colonization would be mostly inspired by this flight-to-the-suburbs mentality. The best and brightest leave for greener (or redder) pastures, while the complacent and the dependent stay home on Earth.
Let’s roll!
“Mars could resemble the lawless Wild West…”
That’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
Nice one, Robin!!!!
I hate to inject a note of reality to this fun discussion, but the “wild west” was in many ways a painful mess. Close those western pulp novels and read some history!
Canada looked at the US history and when opening their West wisely spent some money to keep the law ahead of the frontier.
Larry Kummer
“Canada looked at the US history and when opening their West wisely spent some money to keep the law ahead of the frontier.”
The Metis will affirm that.
Thankyou to Larry Kummer for jolting us all back into our senses.
Those sensible Canadians went to great lengths to make sure that their country was stable enough and safe enough to provide a secure resting place for their Grand National Inferiority Complex
If private-sector colonization of Mars is comparable to the Wild West (or the eastern shores of the current-day US during the 1600s), then what’s a good metaphor for “government-backed expeditions?” How about the East India Company?
Nicely said, David, but a low blow!
One can agree with the mechanics of Canada’s westernization policy without admiration of the socialist “paradise” they’ve created.
The lawless frontier created a large cost in unneccesary suffering, born as usual by women & children. Those years, fortunately brief, consitute a real-world rebuke to more extreme libertarian fantasies.
Larry Kummer