Yesterday was Presidents’ Day in the U.S., one of those indistinguishable Monday holidays that, these days, is most just celebrated as another excuse for a three-day weekend (at least, for those of us whose workplaces recognize federal holidays). Ostensibly, Presidents’ Day is meant to celebrate Washington’s birthday— or maybe Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays— or maybe all those who have served as presidents of the United States. Different state governments don’t even agree on where the apostrophe is suppose to go (President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? Presidents Day?).
Despite the half-heartedness of the holiday, Americans are fairly obsessed with our presidents, which is especially strange given the importance of democracy in our cultural identity. We like our faceless social movements to have a face, I suppose, a main character to sit at the center of whatever narrative we’re using to interpret politics. Presidents also appeal to adherents of the “Great Man” theory of history, in which “the history of the world is but the biography of great men”, to quote Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle.
The Great Man theory is often used to discuss the history of science at a shallow level, in the form of the “lone genius”: Isaac Newton discovered the classical theory of mechanics, which was later improved upon by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, etc. This perspective usually ignores the contributions of countless researchers who made independent simultaneous discoveries, conducted crucial laboratory experiments and fieldwork, and designed and built vital scientific equipment.
In the past several years, the Great Man theory has emerged once again, this time in space exploration, thanks to the rise of private spaceflight companies. Conversations about the plans and activities of space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are more likely than not to discuss the personal motivations of founders Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson. Headlines about the private space industry refer to the “billionaire space race”.
But Jeff Bezos didn’t invent the reusable rocket booster, and Elon Musk wasn’t the first person to argue that humans should settle Mars. These guys aren’t single-handedly building rocket engines in their garages.1 They’re running companies that employ teams of engineers who are designing new technologies based on existing technology, not to mention all the factory workers who are actually building the rockets. Rocket science is— and must be— a collective effort. Space is a team sport.
In fact, that’s one of the things that I love about space science! Astronomy is incredibly accessible, at the basic level, to individuals: you just have to go outside at night and look up. But modern astronomical research requires large teams of people working together to design and build telescopes, analyze data, and constructively debate different potential explanations of what we see.
It’s particularly weird to me that the narrative of space settlement, in particular, has been dominated over the past several decades by people attracted to the “rugged individualist”, “Wild Wild West”, libertarian narrative of space colonization. Living in space would, necessarily, be an even more collective enterprise than living on Earth. In space, after all, there’s no striking out on your own and living off the land.
I like a good story with a complex, independent main character as much as the next American. But if we want to continue moving beyond our cozy home planet, either for exploration or for more permanent habitation, we need to recognize the need for teamwork and cooperation in our endeavors, rather than simply personifying our hopes and dreams for the future in a handful of rich and powerful men.
Other News
My upcoming book, Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space has been entered in a Goodreads giveaway. This means that between now and March 5, you can enter for the chance to win one of five free copies of the book (which comes out March 7). You can enter at the Goodreads page for Off-Earth; you just need a Goodreads account!
A reference to another modern tech industry with a strong Great Man narrative: personal computing.