What I Learned Today

The Tea Party has appeared in the media for a variety of reasons, but I was surprised to come across an article about their desire to support space exploration. In fact, they have articulated a Tea Party Space Platform, which enumerates their space-related goals and priorities. This seems rather perplexing, since the Tea Party is quite vocal about shrinking government and limiting taxes, and it seems rather out of character to promote an expensive national priority when (as some argue) we have so many urgent domestic problems that should be addressed first.

“Our goal is nothing less than the expansion of American civilization into the solar system,” declares the Tea Party Space Platform. They advocate achieving this through the stimulation of private industry and the free market, with limited government participation. And this will succeed due to fundamental “American exceptionalism”:

“It was American individuals and businesses who pioneered the wilderness, built a continent-spanning nation, and created the most prosperous economy in the history of humanity. […] The United States will settle space as it settled the American continent. The days of Lewis and Clark, and Apollo, are over. This is the Oregon Trail space policy.”

The individual planks of their platform propose first to relax ITAR regulations as they relate to space activity, allowing greater international cooperation, which seems very reasonable. Beyond that, the larger shape of their priorities takes form: reducing taxes and liability for space-related industries; free-market competition for space funds; and requiring NASA to partner with industry (seems a little at odds with “free market”?). Finally, the platform lists areas of technology development for which NASA must work with private companies to bring those technologies to “a commercial operational market”. If I understand this, the platform seeks to funnel technology development funds into private companies to develop and mature those capabilities. It’s not clear to me how much of a change that would be from the status quo; NASA centers do conduct much of the space-related technology development that is needed, but NASA also sends a lot of money to private companies and universities to support innovation and development outside of the agency.

More broadly, I still don’t see why this issue would be one that the Tea Party would find important enough to push for. If implemented, the platform could well lead to increased funds going to the private sector, but there are surely other ways to funnel national funds in that direction. Could space exploration itself be the driving motivation?

“Whether it’s timidity from the White House or Congress’ earmark-laden ‘compromises’, our space dreams will be stuck on this planet unless someone articulates a vision based on economic and technical reality, so that’s what we’ve done.” (Andrew Gasser, President of TPIS)

Every since I discovered The Teaching Company’s excellent lecture courses, I’ve been a fan. Apparently, Orson Scott Card is too. He wrote an article about how great the Great Courses are (scroll down about 3/4 of the way). I know just what he means when he writes:

“Why am I going on about these courses? Because I believe education should never end. I don’t think education is something you “get,” and degrees don’t impress me. […] the truth is I read constantly, and take these course[s], for love. It bothers me when there are things I don’t know or don’t quite understand. I hate it that I only speak a couple of languages. There just hasn’t been time to learn all that I’ve wanted to in my life.”

He recommends the following Great Courses professors:

• Brian Fagan: human prehistory
• Elizabeth Vandiver: Herodotus’ history
• Jennifer Paxton: medieval English history
• Kenneth R. Bartlett: history of Renaissance Italy
• Louis Markos: writings of C.S. Lewis
• Marshall C. Eakin; discovery and conquest of the Americas
• Peter Rodriguez: economics
• Philip Daileader’s three courses on early, “high” and late Medieval Europe
• Robert L. Dise Jr.: ancient empires before Alexander the Great
• Scott McEachern: origin of civilization: “begins badly – start with lecture 3”
• John McWhorter: intro to linguistics: “best teacher I’ve encountered in the Great Courses so far”

… none of whom I’ve yet sampled. My own current favorite is Prof. Rufus Fears, who created the excellent “Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change your Life” course (currently discounted). I’m not sure I always agree with his conclusions, but the aim of a great course should be to inspire you to think on your own, not just adopt every opinion and interpretation professed by the instructor. Dr. Fears is always entertaining — sometimes a bit excessively so, as when his lectures become more of a dramatic reading or interpretation of the book under study than an analysis of the great ideas and themes it contains. I am eagerly working my way through this course and hope to learn more from him in the future.

Given Card’s recommendation, I may also be trying Prof. McWhorter as well! I’ve always been interested in linguistics, but have never taken an official course on the subject. A “Teach Yourself Linguistics” book is on my to-read list. Maybe McWhorter’s course will be the impetus for finally making that happen. As Card notes, the best strategy is to wait until the course you’re interested in goes on sale — their sales are phenomenal. Meanwhile, I also have “Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft”, “The English Novel”, and “Stress and Your Body” to enjoy and learn from. Here’s to an educational sabbatical!