Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: njlauren
Actually, you want the real death of can do spirit? We have forgotten how to dream, how to be daring. Say what you want, but JFK dared the US to go to the moon in a decade, to literally build a program from practically nothing into putting men on the moon, and we did it, and created a revolution along the way, a ton of new products came out of that program.
On another forum dedicated to trains (model and otherwise), someone posted an article where the Chinese have proposed building a high speed rail line, I kid you not, from China, up across Manchuria, into Siberia, across the Bering Straight, into Alaska where it would tie into the US and Canadian rail networks. Is it technically feasible? Yes. Is it likely? Nope, would cost several trillion dollars at the very least, and politically would be a minefield.
But reading the responses I was saddened, all these middle america types moaning "oh, you can't do that, would cost too much, would be too difficult too dangerous", sounded like a group of old people complaining about their lumbago and sciatica. What the fuck happened? Sure, it is an outrageous dream, but what is wrong with that? What is wrong with thinking about it, designing it, even if one foot of track is never laid?
I've heard this idea too, about 20 years ago. I thought it was a pretty cool idea myself, and from what I've been told, it would actually save money in shipping costs over the long run. I think the main reason it won't likely happen is due to national security concerns more than anything else.
But I also find these attitudes to be quite common, especially when anyone proposes something big or far-reaching.
quote:
The guy who proposed building the Central Pacific railroad over the Sierra Nevada mountains for the transcontinental railroad was called "Crazy Judah" for even proposing it, but not only did he propose it, but they built it. During WWII the P51 went from drawing board to production in 90 days, which everyone said was impossible, it took years to design a new plane, and not only was the plane built, but once it got a decent engine it wiped out two airforces in a matter of less than a year. We've gone from a country where people weren't afraid to be outrageous to a country full of defeatists saying "we better not dream, it costs too much, can't do that". Someone asked me why I so dislike the tea party, and it is because they are so focused backward that they can't see anything but retreating into our shells and giving up.
It's interesting, since I remember when I was a kid and we sent a man to the Moon, people had tremendously high hopes about the future. There were predictions that we would already have a permanent Moon base and possibly even a man on Mars by this time.
To some extent, I don't know if people are saying "we better not dream," but there are some rather sharp disputes over what we should be dreaming about. Different factions have different dreams and goals, and some of them may conflict with each other. It may also be a matter of wanting to do too much at once, and perhaps an unwitting desire to have one's cake and eat it too.
Other than that, I think every era has had its share of pessimists and defeatists who say "it'll never work."
quote:
I am starting to feel like Bluto Blutarski in Animal House (one of my favorite scenes of all time), "Oh, I am so scared of Dean Wormer, what will he do?.you make me sick. Did the US give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No! So what I say is needermeyer, dead man, Wormer, dead man......so who will follow me? Yaaah" (as I run out the door, and everyone looks at me).
Seriously, it shouldn't be the Chinese proposing something like that, we should be, even if we know it is a pipe dream, dreaming is part of who we should be.
I'm not sure if it was the Chinese who first proposed it. I think the idea has been floated in the past, although I'm not sure who first proposed it or which country they were from. It could be feasible. I still think it's a cool idea, although we'd have to at least build a railroad from the Lower 48 to Alaska, which we don't have yet. Then we'd have to build a railroad all the way to the Bering Strait, as would the Russians, since their closest railhead would be Yakutsk, over 1700 miles away from the Bering Strait. Then they'd have to build the equivalent of two "chunnels," linked by a bridge between Big and Little Diomede Islands.
So, I'd support this idea. I agree that it isn't likely to happen any time soon, although I don't think there's anything wrong with considering the idea and even dreaming about it.
I don't even think the can do spirit is even dead in America. It just may take on different forms or be realized in other areas. What we might call the "can do spirit" is a human phenomenon which America has no monopoly on. I think the "can do spirit" will outlive America. So, as to the OP and the title of this thread, I'm not sure if it's the can do spirit which is dying or America itself. The title of the article linked in the OP states that "overregulation is killing America's can do spirit." Even assuming that may be true (and I'm not saying it is), I think it only scratches the surface as far as addressing what ails America at present.
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Death of American Can do spirit - 
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