As a cultural economist, I love to observe and concern myself with the flight path of cultures and civilizations. Guess what! Cultures and civilizations spend a whole lot of time traveling off course. It didn’t take Adam and Eve very long to get off track and get booted out of the Garden of Eden. Things got better – and then, Noah and his family found themselves floating around looking for another chunk of dry ground where they could start procreating all over again.
A quick review of civilizations, past and present, will leave the investigator’s head spinning and heart pounding. How could all of that have happened? And Why? Consider the Babylonian Empire and the Persian Empire, then the Egyptians and the Hellenic Greeks, and the Roman Empire that stretched from 29 B.C. to 476 A.D. Take a look at China’s Dynasties from 220 B.C. to the Ming Dynasty in mid 1600s. Or check out even the Americas with the Toltecs, the Incas and the Aztecs through the 1500s.
It seems to me that individual folks of each culture and civilization have an undeniable impact on the outcome of experienced and recorded history. They are the ones who choose to employ attitudes and actions of greed, avarice, pride, manipulation, murder, pain, and evil, that eventually work to unravel the golden threads of the civic fabric.
It also seems evident to me, that historically, it has been the phenomenon of “goodness” that through the ages has been the positive correction mechanism for cultures and civilizations. There were prophets, sages, holy leaders, righteous rabble rousers, men and women of sterling character and unusual bravery, who individually and collectively decided to become involved in exemplifying and promoting “goodness.”
Those individuals became change agents. Many times, it was their dedication and commitment that enabled the creative powers of goodness to become the corrective mechanism that altered the very history of this world. That is because if you can change your direction – you can change your world. There will always be a need for correction burns as long as this world exists as we now know it.
On February 8, 2011, NASA’s Mission News reported that their Stardust spacecraft needed to correct its flight path. The Stardust spacecraft was in its twelfth year of space travel and had already traveled 3.5 billion miles since its launch. If the flight path correction was not made the mission would be lost.
That trajectory correction maneuver took just a little over one half minute, and consumed 2.4 ounces of fuel. The maneuver altered the spacecraft’s speed by 1.3 miles per hour – it got the mission successfully back on track.
NASA knows all too well that rockets will eventually get off course because of extenuating factors in space. Journeys don’t always go as planned. There will be need for inflight correction burns to reach the ultimate destination.
What to do? To start with, the first set of guidance instructions will need to be revisited, reevaluated, enhanced, and reaffirmed. The tricky part comes in recalculating the necessary correction burn from the present incorrect position. Few will argue the necessity of getting back on track – but how many ounces of fuel will it take, what new angle will be required, and what new speed will be necessary in order to avoid total calamity and gain ultimate success?
More recently, NASA launched the Mars 2020 Mission from Cape Canaveral on July 30, 2020, headed for the planet of Mars. It contained a very sophisticated nuclear-powered “Perseverance” rover, and a miniature robot helicopter to aid in an unprecedented research exploration. The rover and the robot helicopter were both successfully deployed to the surface of planet Mars on February 18, 2021.
My curiosity compelled me to research and find out if the Mars 2020 Mission required any inflight correction burns. Indeed, there were correction burns! On August 14, the first correction maneuver required the firing of eight thrusters to adjust its course toward the red planet. Before the flight was completed it was necessary to calculate and propel four more trajectory correction maneuvers: September 30, December 18, February 10 and February 16. Not bad for having traveled in excess of 35 million miles.
Regarding correction burns for civilizations and cultures; it seems to me that first, there must be a recognition that the flight is off course. Next, there must be the decision to do something about the problem. Then, agents of change must make a volitional choice to step forward and set a correctional plan into action. Throughout history that positive correctional mechanism for getting cultures and civilizations back on course is a new awareness and extreme dedication to the righteous principles of “goodness.”
We presently are in desperate need of a cultural and civilization correction burn to alter our inflight trajectory. Who is it in our midst that will decide to be the historical change makers in order to see this next great awakening happen for goodness sake?
Next Week: Expect Counteraction to Goodness