To become an Autonomous Astronaut you don't just need to understand the
history of independent space exploration and act accordingly. You must also
to be something different from the attitudes and values of the society
we want to leave behind. We must be ourselves first and foremost - wherever
that may take us. The "militant" posturing so adored by so many
puritanical political activists is of no use to the AAA. It is a mindset
that splits the individual into two, separating people's real individual
and social needs - the reasons why they cannot stand life on planet earth,
from their actions - their attempts to leave this world behind. If the AAA's
programme turns into another job, even for one person, then we will have
failed utterly.
The militant as an individual, and political groups as organisations, suffer
from a sort of displacement of personality - what they want and how they
try to get there are two completely different things. That is why our parties
are just as valuable as our texts. That is why we move in several directions
at once.
The AAA is not a programme that one puts into practice or makes others put
into practice, but a social movement. Those of us who develop and defend
the AAA's ideas do not have any advantage over others except a clearer understanding
and a more rigorous expression; like everyone who is not especially concerned
by theory, we feel the practical need for establishing autonomous
communities in outer space.
We are not leaders or experts - and never will be. People who expect everyone
involved with the network to be able to know about every aspect of space
travel are deluding themselves. We cherish the learning process, the dialogue
between interested individuals. That is how all of our ideas have developed,
and that is how we will achieve our aims. Our training methods reflect this
approach - they are as much about social interaction as they are about
acquiring skills. Those who project their hopes and desires onto us must
understand that they are involved - they are astronauts too.
There is no point in some kind of "élite" group of autonomous
astronauts getting into space, our trajectories must be open to all. We
are not proposing some sort of zero gravity hippie drop-out commune that
excludes everyone else.
We do not have the future mapped out, waiting to fall off the shelf when
the time is right. We only have a limited idea of what communities in outer
space will look like at their beginning, let alone after a hundred years.
Finding out is often the best bit, the whole point of the games we play.
We are concerned with possibilities and experimentation, not with having
the "correct line", or being right in retrospect.
The difficulty lies in the need to go beyond traditional notions of space
travel while not rejecting relevant concepts. It is not enough to understand
that NASA, The ESA and their counterparts in Eastern Europe have nothing
in common with what we are trying to achieve. One must also see what has
actually changed over the last 60 years, and which aspects of their technology
can be adapted in the light of the present situation.
Zero gravity communities are at hand, only the inertia of society prevents
them from forming. But their basis is there, and we will develop the propulsion
to reach them.
The first step is to consider the issues, to engage in dialogue with like-minded
people. The AAA's network of groups is a reflection of this stage. Anyone
reading this can contribute. We have been conditioned by the media over
the last 60 years to place our hopes and aspirations in outer space, but
it is only the AAA that has taken up this challenge seriously. As individuals
we are isolated, atomised. But if we can come together and pool our ideas
and skills then community-based space travel will become not just a possibility,
but a necessity. We have been fooled, conned into letting governments and
armies get into space on our behalf. Occasionally they will dangle little
tit bits in front of us like "life on Mars" or "ice on the
Moon", but nothing really changes. It must be apparent that their interests
are not ours. Now is the time for everyone, for all of us here to do it
for ourselves - and for each other.
Every man and every woman is an autonomous astronaut.
John Eden
Raido AAA