What’s the Point or, Who Killed JFK’s Dream?
Posted on 11 August 2009
I woke up out of a dream this morning, acutely aware that while I can go to any movie theatre and see America deeply involved in a space program (the last Star Trek by J.J. Abrams, for instance, was great fun) nonetheless the real space program is nearly dead on the vine.
What happened? How was it killed?
There has been recent talk (typical assassination conspiracy crap) that JFK was killed because he was trying to regulate the Federal Reserve Board, which we all know isn’t a government agency at all, but a tight-knit group of private bankers who have had a big say in our government’s financial policies since the days of FDR. And while of course this latest assassination conspiracy is nonsense, JFK’s murder sure did knock the stuffing out of America’s sense of hope. This, without question, hobbled our doing the relatively un-fun work necessary to keep going out there in space. But setting aside the thorny issue of who knocked off JFK, let’s explore who (or what) killed his dream of infinite possibility? How did that tangible idea lose out to the chimera of Star Trek?
George Lucas helped. I mean, I loved Star Wars. In fact, back in ‘77 I saw it the day it opened in a theater on 86th Street. But, as the title implies, it’s really just another fantasy about war, set in space. Each incarnation of Lucas’ space opera took us further from JFK’s dream of the real cosmic frontier. And I’m not just talking about rockets launching into space or satellites being sent into orbit – I’m talking about nurturing the belief that we as human beings can transcend grubby politics and expensive wars and take up the mantle of responsibility as citizens of the cosmos. That’s the real frontier, that’s the real space odyssey. But, what did happen, in the case of Vietnam, and continues to happen with every other war we underwrite, is that we dispense the currency of our ideals, draining the treasury of our souls. And so we hasten the demise of the space program, and of JFK’s dream, or any dream for that matter.
The money spent on these wars is now dwarfed when compared with what is being handed over to the banks, etc., by a former Federal Reserve President (it might be noted), William Geithner. Maybe these trillions of taxpayer’s bucks are doing some good. The malls seem fun again, filled to overflowing. The stock market goes up, up, up, which is lots of fun for those who can afford it, I suppose. But along the way, what happened to JFK’s dream of going up, up, up into skies, back to the moon, onwards to the planets and beyond? What happened to his optimism?
And is fantasy enough, delivered on silver screens, now mostly set in malls that deliver even more fantasy – for instance that I can nearly fly across a basketball court in my Nikes, or power my BMW like a jet with plush leather seats, or be sexy, confident and powerful in my outfits from Banana Republic, Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, and Old Navy (even as I know the stuff is made somewhere down south of the border or in Asia in very un-fun sweatshops, feeling like variations on Abu Ghraib, an issue that’s come and gone like water boarding, which, according to Congress, isn’t really torture anyway).
But let’s stay on point and rephrase the question. Does all this fantasy – fun TV commercials, fun news programs, ubiquitous billboards and posters, even the cool logos on our hot shirts and biodegradable pants – has all this somehow deprived us of the hard driving (not always fun) truths that emerge from a dream like JFK’s or Martin Luther King’s? The kind of dream that changes everything: Civil rights, rampant corporate corruption, a British King’s stranglehold on a colony across the Atlantic, global warming, a world economy in crisis, even the unexplored cosmos which opens itself up to us every night in our dreams? In other words, does fantasy (with even the best of intentions) keep us from remembering and then acting on the kinds of deep, challenging dreams that bring us real change?
Stephen Gyllenhaal
3 responses to What’s the Point or, Who Killed JFK’s Dream?
Not only am I culpable, but who better to have to face this issue than someone who has been swimming in it? I have just finished a book called “No Logo,” written by Naomi Klein. It’s an exploration of how corporate branding has diminished our humanity and I highly recommend it. It is compelling and deeply worrisome. Aren’t most movies (at least coming out of Hollywood) all about branding us to think a certain way? To imagine that to be human is to act in a certain way, ala Tom Cruise or Robert Redford, etc, rather than just who we are? But there are also movies, I believe, that move us in a more human direction. I’ve done a few that have, hopefully, moved more in that direction, also admittedly work that has been really damaging. But how better do we learn than by making mistakes?
I would tend to disagree with The Doctor, and suggest that fantasy, our obsession with the unrealized possible, is actually what drove us to the most amazing achievements of recorded history. JFK’s challenge to go to the moon was “fantasy” when he extended it, fed by a littany of 50s science ficiton space flicks and Cold War espionage flicks, which stemmed both our desire to explore and our need to go beyond the successes of our ‘enemies’. Similarly, MLK himself framed his goal as “a dream”, yet a strong argument could be made that such corporate-heavy fantasy as “Star Trek” helped to promote, rather than hinder, the ever-approaching realization of this dream.
I would argue that the framing of corporate-branding as “fantasy” is misleading, and that the issue is much more rudimentary but, unfortunately, much less tangible. Obsession with corporate-branding is a symptom of the loss of two simple principles which, historically, were inextricably linked to our success: honor and personal responsibility. Honor dictates that you live for a higher purpose; responsibility dictates that you must answer for your actions. Both of these disciplines encourage people to strive for bigger, better, even impossible goals.
Corporate-branding, on the other hand, benefits on the loss thereof, because the acquisition of styles, logos, commodities which supercede those of your neighbor is a solely personal venture–and, therefore, a venture of personal aggrandizement. Because obsession has switched from higher purposes to personal acquisition pursuits, and interpersonal obligation has become personal entitlement, our sights have been lowered to the acquisition of mere status symbols which reflect success on a personal level. Unfortunately, personal success is rarely on par with the goals and dreams set out by luminaries like JFK.
The causes of this loss may be debated ad infinitum–be they unchecked embracing of the 60s’ self-satisfaction policy, popularizing of criminal culture, what have you–but I cannot agree that “fantasy”‘s role has been significant enough to warrant its demonization.
We all have our fantasies. Mine is a joint commemoration of the two big events of 1969: Woodstock, and the Moon landing. A concert on the moon? Trouble is, the fuel needed to get everybody there (performers, audience, film crew…) will cost a lot more than it would have 40 years ago. A pity!
Seriously, though, a space program–treated strictly as an exercise in transportation–has to be treated as a fantasy, not a potential reality. I’ve just finished reading “$20 per Gallon,” by Christopher Steiner [GrandCentral, 2009]. As we work our way toward gas at that price, we will see the death of most airlines worldwide, the collapse of
WalMart, the rise of the railroad [which can move four times as much cargo per unit of fuel as trucks can], and the end of sushi places and long voyages for California
vegetables. If sushi is too expensive to transport, what hope is there for moon shuttles?
However, when one dream can’t be realised, maybe a different one will be worth the trouble. Imagine much of America living a neighborhoods where the nearest schools, markets, etc. are within walking distance (goodbye suburban obesity!), with rail and streetcar links and bullet trains giving you the option of leaving your New York home and being in Chicago three hours later, with no circling the airport. More people will enjoy fresh fruits and
vegetables because they’ll be grown in fields or hothouses close to where they live, or even on people’s roofs. I would love to see a movie set in such a world, but that’s just me.
And maybe getting transportation more efficient will lead to fuel-efficient space travel. In the meantime, I’ll happily enjoy the space movies.