Ambition
The 40th anniversary of man’s landing on the moon commemorates a supreme achievement of collective will. However, the fact that we have been no further into space since the 1970s should prompt some reflection. Did something special mark that past generation? Have we lost something?
Perhaps the generation of people who made it happen had something special. This generation grew up in the Depression and through the Second World War. The formative years of astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins occurred when the community had to work together in a supreme effort to defeat threats to civilisation. Collectively, they succeeded.
Perhaps this experience imbued the decision makers of the 1960s with a will to make things happen.
Today we face similar challenges. But our near inertia of today, as compared with 40 years ago, as we face threats of pollution, climate change and overpopulation, seem to show we have lost that collective will that once helped us achieve the seemingly impossible. Maybe it’s time to reclaim our ambition.
Andrew Field, Camberwell
