With the impending deconstruction of context and nuance, a pair of vital concepts within the first line paradigm of critical thinking skills, the catapulting of Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos and three others in flirting with orbit, is a resounding culmination of the initial awkward baby steps of the information age. The more than “averagenauts” of former test pilot Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch national Oliver Daemen flanked one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, or vise versa, and the aristocrat’s brother Mark was the ceremonial stowaway. There is no word yet from the Clinton camp on whether Bill or Roger Jr. will plot their escape into the Thermosphere with the continued harrowing production of Hillary’s lingering failed White House run rivaling a Ginza anime funhouse carnage pulsating to counterfeit trance baselines with technicolored misandry and contempt.
As the future remains intriguingly bleak, and devastatingly enthralling, the subsonic ascension of the Blue Origin space capsule reaching the nearest borders of space, and the furthest point from the earth’s surface, encapsulates the frenetic volatility of a world cursed by an abundance of convenience, and plagued by the trials and tribulations of everyday life jaded by the prevalence of the smart phone.
On one hand, the unlikely accomplishment of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson to first cheat gravity through a private venture mocking the glacial stagnation and thermodynamic ignorance of NASA, and now Bezos in embracing the American dream and nearly perfecting supply and demand to live out a fantasy stokes the fires of hope. The story line documenting the founder of the largest retail outlet on the globe’s journey from a garage in the quiet Apple Valley neighborhood of suburbia to legendary status alone demands a Hollywood script, however, the impact of the Amazon empire on society is not quite as graceful as floating from the towers of the atmosphere to a delicate landing in the remoteness of West Texas.
As the influence of Amazon has transformed the entire complexion of the small to medium-sized business rigorous vibrancy of private ownership, and many of those same hard working Americans are now caught as glorified delivery drivers within the brute tidal forces of the gig economy, exhaustive platitudes now represent the basis of the average consumer’s perception and understanding of the world. With ideology and biases introduced into the noxious equation from the leaders of Big tech, the ramifications on firms leaning towards the Conservative spectrum have become prisoners to the “one-stop, one-shop” mantra of consolidation driving socio-economic behaviors, as price wars are dictating the costs of business to business services. This leads to a quandary that the nation faced during the railroad monopolies and the power couple of Ma Bell and AT&T before deregulation. The environment of instant gratification and the subsequent anxiety spawned by a seemingly limitless and comprehensive supply of warehouse to front porch direct merchandise is a daunting framework that is not entirely visible 65 miles up and weightless.
Lost within the shuffle of the malaise of the current marketplace is the just over twenty year window of successfully developing a vertical oriented launch vehicle from scratch. The aforementioned overlords at NASA drowning in bureaucracy and unfettered waste of tax payer dollars must cringe at the exploits of Bezos and the Blue Origin brand in completing the first phases of a civilian project which will eventually lead to commercialized programs in satellite launches and low earth orbit resorts and laboratories experimenting with innovation motivated by profits and not inherent delays corrupted by government worker unions. If anything, the combined efforts of Bezos and Branson should be indicative that privately-funded entities are exponentially more effective in offering sensible solutions for directing megaprojects, especially if the firms possess the GDP magnitude equity of a small nation.
Interestingly, the viral expansion into space plays a similar role as smart devices and AI, in merely masking the issues that humans face, problems that are ironically exacerbated by the prevalence of ultra-comfort and the annihilation of the blue collar workforce, as machines and Democratic pecuniary policy results in a shortage of workers, and the unfortunate trend of inflation that is sparked for its own logarithmic explosion with the culprit being leaders and lawmakers exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, a litany of Democratic Socialists, spearheaded by the indelible Kshama Sawant of Seattle lambasted Bezos for his apparent indifference to the third world working conditions at his North American warehouse locations in calling for the insufferably tiresome demands for reform, and the redistribution of wealth, two of the R’s replacing writing and arithmetic in the extremists morphing of the public school system into classrooms of indoctrination.
As 65 miles equates to 343,200 feet, and applying the distance to horizon formula, the new age “averagenauts” were able to see a 717 mile of circumference of land and sea, including two countries, thirteen states, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico, at the apex of the flight. While just over ten total minutes partially mastering the gravity well, furnished a soul searching adventure unmatched outside of the confines of retro NASA, will this lead to any changes in trajectory within the stratification layers of the tech hierarchy. As Bezos summed up the ride with the vapid catch phrase of, “Best. Day. Ever!”, life can now proceed on the typical tangent of worrying whether or not the future automated delivery methodologies of the galactic retail outlet will evoke consternation and primal fear, as courier drones are somehow configured to “crash mode”.
The former CEO, now crowned space traveler, will never be adorned with having the “Right Stuff”, but in a world where money talks, and the free market reigns, more power to someone who has mastered the game, and providers a buffer between radicals and SOP.
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