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Tag Archives: Nietzsche

The Spiritual John Glenn

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by essaybee2012 in Christianity, God, greater power, John H. Glenn, Mercury astronauts, NASA, religiosity, religious affiliations, role models, Tom Wolfe

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Alan B. Shepard, American flag, capabilities, Christian Science, Christianity, Church of Christ, conquest of space, cosmonauts, David, Donald K. Slayton, flying jock, God, Goliath, greater power, Islam, Israelites, John H. Glenn, Leroy G. Cooper, Lutherans, Malcolm S. Carpenter, media, Mercury astronauts, NASA, Nietzsche, Old Testament, opportunities, Philistines, piety, Presbyterians, press, religiosity, religious affiliations, role models, space race, Sunday school, talents, The Kingdom Of Speech, The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe, U.S. space program, Virgil I. Grissom, Wall Street Journal, Walter M. Schirra, World War I

Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-wolfe-the-faith-of-john-glenn-1481325139

  • Life
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Tom Wolfe:  The Faith of John Glenn

The first American to orbit the Earth brought his religiosity to the U.S. space program—and that made many astronauts bristle

NASA introduces its original seven Mercury astronauts at a news conference, Washington, D.C., April 9, 1959.  Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn is fifth from the left.  Photo:  Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

By

Tom Wolfe

Updated Dec. 9, 2016 6:10 p.m. ET

Ready or not, it took how long—20 minutes, maybe?— on Day One, April 9, 1959, for John Glenn to become the role model for every American astronaut of the 20th century.  The problem was, most of them hated the role.

The scene is a press conference convened in the new NASA headquarters in Washington to introduce the first seven astronauts chosen for the U.S. space program.  A mass of reporters and photographers are writhing like weevils among one another to get better angles on the seven men at a table onstage—including, in the middle, Glenn, who died Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 95.

[For video, see: http://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-wolfe-the-faith-of-john-glenn-1481325139 ]

The head of NASA gets up and says, “It is my pleasure to introduce to you—and I consider it a very real honor, gentlemen—from your right, Malcolm S. Carpenter, Leroy G. Cooper, John H. Glenn, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Alan B. Shepard, Donald K. Slayton…the nation’s Mercury astronauts!”

With that, the press rise to their feet like a single ecstatic animal.  They cheer, scream, clap, shout and weep sublime tears…The press…the press…would they ever stop?

That was the first indication that even the media was succumbing to the single-combat mania that seemed to have died out many centuries ago.  In single combat, two armies confront each other in the battlefield.  But before the all-out battle, each sends out a champion…and the two fight to the death to find out whose side the gods are on.  The most famous tale of single combat is the Old Testament story of David and Goliath.  Little David, the Israelite, slays Goliath, the giant Philistine with a slingshot, and cuts his head off.  The Philistines are so demoralized that they flee, and the Israelites decimate them.

At the time, no one realized that the space race was single combat revived in a slightly, but only slightly, new form.  The American astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts vied with one another for the conquest of space, as it was thought to be.  There was no earthly reason why the conquest of space, so-called, would have any direct effect upon the conquest of Earth, but there was no one old enough to remember that single combat was never constrained by logic.

Once the giddy noise dies down, the first reporter to raise his hand wants to know from each of the seven whether or not his wife and children “had anything to say about this.”  The boys begin answering in typical military-officer fashion.  The idea is to answer personal questions as remotely and briefly and in as moribund a deadpan as possible.  That they proceed to do…until it’s John Glenn’s turn.

The others can’t believe it.  The man’s ready with a discourse on the subject, complete with sincerity-steeped rhetorical inflections.

“I don’t think any of us could really go on with something like this if we didn’t have pretty good backing at home, really,” Glenn says.  “My wife’s attitude toward this has been the same as it has been all along through all my flying.  If it is what I want to do, she is behind it, and the kids are too, a hundred percent.”

What the hell is he talking about?  I don’t think any of us could really go on with something like this… Schirra leans into his mike and says, “My wife has agreed that professional opinions are mine, career is mine.”  What possible difference could a wife’s attitude make about an opportunity this big?  What was with this guy?

It keeps on in that fashion.  Some reporter gets up and asks them all about their religious affiliations (religious affiliations?)—and Glenn tees off again.

“I am a Presbyterian,” he says, “a Protestant Presbyterian, and I take my religion very seriously, as a matter of fact.”  He starts telling them about all the Sunday schools he has taught at and the church boards he has served on and all the church work that he and his wife and his children have done.  “I was brought up believing that you are placed on Earth here more or less with sort of a 50-50 proposition, and this is what I still believe.  We are placed here with certain talents and capabilities.  It is up to each of us to use those talents and capabilities as best you can.  If you do that, I think there is a power greater than any of us that will place the opportunities in our way, and if we use our talents properly, we will be living the kind of life we should live.”

A power greater than any of us!  From the lips of a flying jock!  The others do their best to locate some piety and stay in the game.  Gus Grissom says, “I consider myself religious.  I am a Protestant and belong to the Church of Christ.  I am not real active in church, as Mr. Glenn is”—Mister Glenn—“but I consider myself a good Christian still.”  Deke Slayton says, “As far as my religious faith is concerned, I am a Lutheran, and I go to church periodically.”  Alan Shepard says, “I am not a member of any church.  I attend the Christian Science Church regularly.”  He doesn’t feel compelled to mention that when he went to church, it was because his wife was an ardent member.  It was hard slogging, but Glenn had given them no choice.  The wise thing was to imply somehow that you had piety to burn.

Glenn never gave up.  He kept the pressure on.  In his speech to Congress after the historic flight that made him the first American to orbit the Earth, he said some things that nobody else in the world could have gotten away with, even in 1962.  He said, “I still get a lump in my throat when I see the American flag passing by.”

Yet for all of this, I never see mention of Glenn’s importance in the religious history of the United States.  In the late 19th century, Nietzsche uttered his famous dictum “God is dead,” referring to the decline of Christianity among educated, well-to-do people in Europe, and the death throes had spread to America after World War I.  Here, religion limped osteoporotically through the rest of the century, but America remains the most religious country outside of the nations of Islam.  Glenn’s religiosity, amplified by the tremendous, Zeus-like success of the space program—which became his voice—may have slowed down the grim slide.  Where it will all come out, of course, God only knows.

—Mr. Wolfe’s books include “The Right Stuff” and, most recently, “The Kingdom of Speech.”

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Some friendly facebook exchanges from this morning…

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by essaybee2012 in America, becoming what you are, Joseph Stalin, Mitt Romney, power, Power to the people--right on!, revoluton, Ron Paul, will, will to power

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"two sides of the same coin", America, Barack Obama, becoming what you are, Bill Maher, blue states, capitalist elite, caucuses, Che Guevara, community programs, corporate elite, Donald Trump, drone surveillance, elite, Federal Reserve, food banks, freedom, Give Peace A Chance, Habitat For Humanity, internet spying, John Lennon, Jon Stewart, Joseph Stalin, Liberty Defined, Mao, masks, mass murder, Matt Taibbi, military industrial complex, Mitt Romney, nation building, Newt Gingrich, Nietzsche, Obamacare, Paolo Coelho, partisan, Paul Tournier, Pindar, power, Power to the people--right on!, privacy, private donations, prosperity, rallies, Red Cross, red states, revolution, Revolution A Manifesto, revolution of the heart, rich, Romneycare, Ron Paul, Rumi, System of a Down, taxpayers, The Meaning of Persons, voting, will, will to power, wiretaps

Steve Bort shared Rumi‘s photo.

“Our greatest strength lies in the gentleness and tenderness of our heart.”  —Rumi
~
System Of A Down sang about “revolution, the only solution.”  Maybe, a revolution of the heart is what we need?  –SB
~
“We need to forget what we think we are, so that we can really become what we are”.  —Paulo Coelho
~
The philosopher Pindar was the first to say “learn, and become what you are.” [Paul Tournier, in chapter four of his book, The Meaning of Persons, expands on the thought beautifully.] “The point is to cease wearing masks and to celebrate who we are without the disingenuousness of disguise.”  [ see my previous blog: Becoming What You Are ]  –SB
~
Facebook friend:  “I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.”  –Joseph Stalin
~
Me:  Respectfully, Stalin was a mass murderer, which would be my objection.  Nietzsche spoke famously of a twist to those same words, “the will to power.”  Nietzsche wrote:  “My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all …space and to extend its force (its will to power) and to thrust back all that resists its extension.  But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement (“union”) with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power.”
~
On the surface, they appear the same, but one’s ultimate intent with the power they will, or wield, is the difference–mass murder or not.  I would offer the example of the Stalin’s and Mao’s [and Che Guevara’s] who have willed power through massive and indiscriminate murder.  Obama and Romney will power to control their own partisan agendas, whether those of the left or right.  They have no intention of going so far as to murder people though.  Ron Paul wills personal power to each individual with the government serving to protect the individuals’ powers.
~
Just my two cents worth, since we should all be unafraid and unhindered to speak freely.  [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_power ].”
~

Steve Bort shared Conservative Patriots of America‘s photo.

You won’t get it from Romney, only Ron Paul.  There’s still time.  –SB
~
Facebook friend:  Your #1 premise is wrong.  Obama gone implies that you want the same black-hearted bastards that have run this country into the ground for 8 of the last 11 Presidential terms.  If you like the rich getting richer off of the rest of us go ahead fulfill your tragic destiny.  The rest of us would like things to improve!  That sure doesn’t mean Ron Paul either.
~
Me:  You’re dead on right about Romney.  He flip flops according to which way his campaign “weathermen” say which way the wind blows.  Even with his support of Romneycare versus his non-support of Obamacare.  Romney fights for power with the capitalist elite and military industrial complex.  Obama just wants to play golf, take vacations on the taxpayer’s dime and hold lavish celebrity parties, fighting for power with the government so that more taxpayer money flows in to fund his and his cronies’ elitist agendas.
~
Ron Paul, in his thirty years of public service, has never wavered on his intentions if president (read his [two] recent books, Revolution: A Manifesto and Liberty Defined).  He wants power with the people (“Power To The People, Right On”–John Lennon).  Paul wants the strongest military possible, here at home where they belong, not spread out all over the world as “the big dog on the block” and in the business of nation building (“Give Peace A Chance”–John Lennon).
~
He wants the crooks in the Federal Reserve booted out.  He wants to return our prosperity to America where it belongs.  He wants privacy restored with hardcore limits on surveillance on the public through wiretaps, internet spying and drone surveillance.
~
How can the pure freedoms that he offers into the hands of Americans (you and me) be wrong in light of Romney’s push for power in the hands of the corporate elite and military industrial complex and in light of Obama’s push for taxpayer money (Obamacare did turn out to be a tax after all…hmmmm) in order to fund him and his elitist cronies and their every bit as lavish lifestyles as Gingrich, Romney, Trump…? 
~
Paul wants social-care programs for those who cannot work in private hands, not in taxpayer-funded government hands.  There are private-donation reliant community programs right now that work fine without government regulation–the Red Cross, Habitat For Humanity, local food banks… 
~
With all due respect to my oldest and most loyal friend whom I’ve known now for 45 years, you don’t even vote.  I’ve participated in caucuses at the precinct level and county level as well as having phoned and emailed members of congress and attended rallies on the steps of the State Capital.  You and I in the wisdom of our years both know how the system works by now.  We both know that Ron Paul is the only alternative to the “two sides of the same coin” of Obama and Romney.
~
You just can’t break away from the partisan tape-reels of Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart… that spin through your brain.  I wish everyone could just “tear down the walls” of their red and blue boxes that they hide within–and breathe in the fresh air and long view of the reality outside.

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