What Will be Our Legacy?

We’ve become a civilization of idiots, and this will be our demise

We, bound by a common origin, composed of elements forged in the nuclear cauldrons of long-dead stars, look up at the stars and, in humility, connect with each other.

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It’s often been said that the measure of a civilization’s worth is how they treat(ed) the least among them, the poor, the homeless and the hungry. On a planetary scale (because that’s the scale we’re operating at now), what will be our legacy in, say, 5 or 10 thousand years? Will we still be here? My guess is probably not at the rate we’re going.

Why do I say that?

If we don’t commit self-suicide in a nuclear conflagration, our demise will come from above, and we will never see it coming. Why? Because we’ve become a civilization of idiots, and that will be our demise.

Instead, we’ll be caught with our hands in the proverbial cookie jar, praying to an invisible wizard in the sky who we think will save and protect us from ourselves - isn’t that what those in power now want us to do? They’re too worried about people of color getting too much attention and recognition - this is what they’re concerned with. Do these sound like people who are vigilant, caring, thoughtful, intelligent or watchful?

No, of course not.

Thursday, March 20, Donald Trump signed an executive order that will, in effect, shutter the United States Department of Education at the hands of a wrestling coach. Linda McMahon of WWF fame is the Education Secretary selected by him and confirmed by the United States Senate. They’re literally shutting down the nation’s education department with the excuse that education belongs in the hands of the states. Since I’m a professional educator, this is particularly galling to me. That she (or any of his cabinet picks) were confirmed speaks volumes about our elected representatives, but that’s a different conversation.

And now we have: Billboards in orbit

3D illustration of Earth surrounded by illuminated orbital screens. Allvision/Getty Images

With the stars now invisible, any inspiration will have died - “to seek out new life, to boldly go where no man has gone before” (Gene Roddenberry, the visionary who gave us Star Trek).

You see, as a child growing up in 1960s rural downstate New York, I was inspired to become an astronomer by the ethereal beauty of the night sky. You didn't have to travel out to the desert or to a vacation spot to witness the beauty of the night sky, the Milky Way and the galactic center.

Hours upon hours were spent looking at it, captured by its beauty, scanning it with telescopes and binoculars. That’s gone now, replaced by neon signs, streetlights and billboards. You can still witness that beauty if you travel, but that will be gone now too if we allow orbiting billboards.

Plato so eloquently said long ago:

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

As the lights became brighter, the stars faded, and so did the inspiration of the next generation to where we are today. We no longer look at the stars, instead we spend hours upon hours looking at our phones, or for that next TikTok video. Do you know what the latest craze is? Using what used to be a small “finderscope” setup on an actual telescope, to track and image objects on the sky. These aren’t telescopes and this isn’t astronomy but that same obsession with “apps” just repackaged for the unwitting masses.

Any threat from above will be invisible, hidden by an orbiting cesspool of neon lights and billboards. You see, actual astronomers are those people who warn us about killer asteroids or a possible lethal supernova that could produce the equivalent of a gamma-ray pulse laser aimed directly at the earth. NASA hires them, but with just about everyone in the federal government now a potential target for a pink slip, they’re probably clutching their pearls or waiting for that dreaded email or knock on the door. I talk more about this here.

We’ve become a civilization of idiots, and this will be our demise.