golden_eyes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
golden_eyes) wrote2018-11-14 01:19 pm
golden_eyes) wrote2018-11-14 01:19 pm
On The Future Of Mars
Three hundred and twenty years ago, humans arrived on Mars, bringing with them the grand traditions of violent capitalism and exploitation. The freedom settlers were looking for was to escape even the barest attempts at regulation by the Earth government.
We’ve never denied this history. We aren’t calling for any return to an ‘Old Mars’, however idealized we might be able to present it, we leave that sort of thing to ‘politicians’ who try to stir up support by pushing at present divisions and trying to create even more. We don’t call for any split between Earth and Mars. We would agree that Admiral Holdings isn’t some aberration, it fits perfectly with the ethos this planet has excelled at for so long.
The wealthy shareholders of Admiralty Holdings, and others who believe they’ll profit off them, say we’re resistant to progress, but AH is just a new gloss to old problems; we seek something that’s actually new, we don’t look for a profit margin.
In One, miners still work at jobs that frequently leave them badly injured, leaving families to fall over the thin line of subsistence to find there’s no net below them to protect workers once they’ve lost ‘value’. In Two, trying to find a place for augmentations and repairs can be a dangerous game, because when there’s no legal way to make what should be personal choices, there’s no regulation or recourse if anything goes wrong. In Three, it’s easy to see through the illusion of a practicing society if you don’t have the money that allows you to pretend to be part of it. There’s justice, medicine, protection - if you can pay for it; really the only true difference between the levels is how much all of those cost.
That was the Old Mars. That is still the ‘New’ Mars that Admiralty Holdings claims has come to replace it. You can see it in all their videos. Admiralty is good for Mars! They invest in progress! They’ve given us so many technical developments, to make it so much easier to make money! They take advantage of everything that’s comes from the regulation that Earth never really managed to impose. They up the benefits for the small percentage of the plant who are rich, while pretending it’s possible for you to join those ranks. They’ve made it a little more expensive to buy the police, so they can say that they’re cleaning up the streets without having to looking at the systematic problems that work to their advantage. Even if the stories of just how forcefully they conduct business were lies - something it seems hard to really believe, after all the evidence we’ve been able to share, in the brief spaces before they figure out how to clamp it down - then they’d still the problem, not any sort of solution.
The people of Mars need true change. The value of sentient life shouldn’t be measured by economic worth, but for those people who can’t imagine otherwise, there’s long standing proof that raising the quality of life creates a more productive world. Invest in schools, invest in cleaning up pollution, invest in creating objective justice; this is what will give you a better tomorrow. You’re afraid of crime? Consider trying to create a world where that doesn’t look like the best chance. Afraid of violence from those who have nothing? Work on erasing the gap instead of living with the cycle of disruptions and attacks caused by the blatant inequity and attacks on communities. When peaceful protests have to be presented anonymously to avoid persecution, it’s not the protesters who are in the wrong.
Mars can be better. Mars deserves better. Let all of us work together to create something truly new. Mars was the god of war, but only until we can achieve peace.
~ The Red Planet
We’ve never denied this history. We aren’t calling for any return to an ‘Old Mars’, however idealized we might be able to present it, we leave that sort of thing to ‘politicians’ who try to stir up support by pushing at present divisions and trying to create even more. We don’t call for any split between Earth and Mars. We would agree that Admiral Holdings isn’t some aberration, it fits perfectly with the ethos this planet has excelled at for so long.
The wealthy shareholders of Admiralty Holdings, and others who believe they’ll profit off them, say we’re resistant to progress, but AH is just a new gloss to old problems; we seek something that’s actually new, we don’t look for a profit margin.
In One, miners still work at jobs that frequently leave them badly injured, leaving families to fall over the thin line of subsistence to find there’s no net below them to protect workers once they’ve lost ‘value’. In Two, trying to find a place for augmentations and repairs can be a dangerous game, because when there’s no legal way to make what should be personal choices, there’s no regulation or recourse if anything goes wrong. In Three, it’s easy to see through the illusion of a practicing society if you don’t have the money that allows you to pretend to be part of it. There’s justice, medicine, protection - if you can pay for it; really the only true difference between the levels is how much all of those cost.
That was the Old Mars. That is still the ‘New’ Mars that Admiralty Holdings claims has come to replace it. You can see it in all their videos. Admiralty is good for Mars! They invest in progress! They’ve given us so many technical developments, to make it so much easier to make money! They take advantage of everything that’s comes from the regulation that Earth never really managed to impose. They up the benefits for the small percentage of the plant who are rich, while pretending it’s possible for you to join those ranks. They’ve made it a little more expensive to buy the police, so they can say that they’re cleaning up the streets without having to looking at the systematic problems that work to their advantage. Even if the stories of just how forcefully they conduct business were lies - something it seems hard to really believe, after all the evidence we’ve been able to share, in the brief spaces before they figure out how to clamp it down - then they’d still the problem, not any sort of solution.
The people of Mars need true change. The value of sentient life shouldn’t be measured by economic worth, but for those people who can’t imagine otherwise, there’s long standing proof that raising the quality of life creates a more productive world. Invest in schools, invest in cleaning up pollution, invest in creating objective justice; this is what will give you a better tomorrow. You’re afraid of crime? Consider trying to create a world where that doesn’t look like the best chance. Afraid of violence from those who have nothing? Work on erasing the gap instead of living with the cycle of disruptions and attacks caused by the blatant inequity and attacks on communities. When peaceful protests have to be presented anonymously to avoid persecution, it’s not the protesters who are in the wrong.
Mars can be better. Mars deserves better. Let all of us work together to create something truly new. Mars was the god of war, but only until we can achieve peace.
~ The Red Planet