Always Raising the Bar

Ever since I was quite young, I’ve always sought to “raise the bar” (which I assume to be a high jump or pole vault metaphor, rather than, say, limbo). For some reason, I find myself irritated when I see people celebrate their accomplishments. It’s like now they can stop or something, but I believe that would be shameful.

I think this relates to things like civilization. I think it’s cool we have indoor plumbing and stuff, but we can’t realistically travel to other planets. I have various issues with Elon Musk, but at least he’s putting some cash into that one. As it stands, we’re earth-bound and not really making the progress prior generations have made.

I think about this topic often, and I wonder why I even care. When it’s all said and done, isn’t the quality of _my_ life the one that matters to me? And it is, but I think life on earth could be enhanced by something bigger. Just today someone was asking me about civil war in the US. I happen to think that’s unlikely for several reasons, but moreover, I find the topic to be quite “small” and _yesterday_. People fantasize about things like civil war because the thinking is they could be On Top if only things were different, but like… it’s hard to imagine circumstances would end up completely different. Sure, a few figureheads would die, but it’s not like people would suddenly stop being people.

On the other hand, suppose we had to start planning to colonize Mars. That’s a _huge_ project that could realistically yield other fruits along the way. Moreover, it ends the boring US Civil War remakes.

When I was a kid, I dreaded watching “Westerns.” They’re SO boring. And yet, that was like all there was once cartoons were over. Now I assume they just play pharmaceutical ads back to back to back. Wouldn’t it be nice to break the monotony and see a “Visit Mars” ad? It sure helped Total Recall.