Advice to Scott Kelly: Do not apologise to these space cadets

Scoot kelly Winston Chruchill for THE Mocker

OPINION

Any of you oldies remember that promotional blurb for Ridley’s Scott’s classic film Alien?

It was “In space no-one can hear you scream.” Many of you probably felt like screaming, or at the very least swearing, when you heard about the circumstances this week that led to famed astronaut Scott Kelly upsetting the lunar left.

Commenting in the wake of conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh’s successful nomination to the US Supreme Court, Scott probably thought he had his feet safely planted on terra firma.

“One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘in victory, magnanimity’.” tweeted Scott on Sunday. “I guess those days are over.”

One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, “in victory, magnanimity.” I guess those days are over.

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 7, 2018

Kavanaugh was the subject of the bitterest opposition to a judicial nomination in US history, and it may have escaped Scott the reasons why the judge’s supporters have indulged in a little schadenfreude.

But that is by the bye. Scott’s citing of Churchill prompted some disgruntled tweeps to accuse the famous wartime leader of racism and atrocities.

What was surprising was Scott’s reaction. “Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill,” he hastily explained in a subsequent tweet. “My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support.”

Now reflect on the significance on that for a moment.

Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support. My point was we need to come together as one nation. We are all Americans. That should transcend partisan politics.

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 7, 2018

This is not the predictable self-flagellation of a male feminist or a job application for diversity commissioner. This is a veteran of four space flights, three of them as commander of the International Space Station. He is a retired US Navy captain, aviator, test pilot and engineer. He spent 520 days in space.

The study into the effect of his long-term deployment in zero-gravity has proved invaluable for both science and medicine, although the detriment his health has suffered has as a result has probably shortened his life. By all accounts this man is a hero.

So why on earth did he capitulate to these perpetually aggrieved brats? The spectacle of an intrepid American pioneer reduced to mumbling a Maoist self-criticism is both pitiful and disquieting.

Not surprisingly Kelly’s apology resulted in him being criticised not only by defenders of Churchill, but by those disgusted at the modern phenomenon of acquiescing in the mob mentality.

Please don’t apologize. Winston Churchill, like all of us, had serious human failings. But unlike most of us—he possessed genuine greatness. And that greatness may have saved freedom & democracy. Ask the Twitter scolds to name a hero or heroine who didn’t have serious flaws. https://t.co/O74bT2jpY3

— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) October 8, 2018

“In the name of historical literacy,” wrote Noah Rothman of Commentary Magazinein respect to the backlash, “an absurd form of pseudo-academic reductionism has become the preferred means by which we ‘interrogate’ Western (and only Western) history.”

As for the disparaging of Churchill, where does one start? Not that he would have found criticism unusual, particularly that coming from an ally.

During the 1930s he was a pariah among his fellow Conservatives, who dismissed his demands to counter German rearmament. He succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in 1940 during the darkest days of the war, and his characteristic tenacity prevailed over demands he negotiate a peace with Hitler. He epitomised the struggle against Nazism, and is deservedly regarded as the greatest Briton of all time.

That he believed in the supremacy of the English-speaking peoples is not questioned. He despised the Indian independence movement leader Mohandas Gandhi, labelling him “a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir … striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal Palace”. But to apply today’s standards — especially regarding race relations — to historical figures is a pointless exercise.

It was wryly amusing to see among those protesting Churchill’s “extraordinarily racist views” were people objecting to his treatment of Gandhi.

Thank you for apologizing, as a person of Indian descent, its painful for me when people gloss over his extraordinary racist views, his views of India and Ghandi, his involvement in the Bengal famine. Whilst ignoring 4 million dead Indian soldiers of ww2.

— a-man (@HinduKush87) October 9, 2018

Presumably they were unaware their revered Mahatma was a supporter of racial segregation during his early adulthood when he lived in South Africa (he only objected when colonial administrators grouped Indians with Africans). Two can play the game of retrospectivity righteousness.

Returning to the subject of political correctness and space, I read in the last Weekend Australian a review of the movie First Man based on the Apollo 11 moon landing. The director and screen writer, wrote David Stratton, “play down the jingoistic elements that could have marred the film”. Marred?

“This presumably is why they don’t show the planting of the US flag on the moon, an omission that, not surprisingly, has been attacked by some commentators,” he wrote. Not so many years ago we took children as young as three to the theatre to see Bambi’s mother being shot. Now we erase from a movie one of the most momentous moments in human history to avoid triggering so-called adults. What next — a documentary about the Battle of Iwo Jima that omits the most iconic scene of the Pacific War?

I am reluctant to endorse First Man myself, although for other reasons.

At the very least it should have featured the astronauts acknowledging their white male cisgender privilege as they climbed down the ladder to the moon’s surface.

On that note the movie could have made huge progress towards equality had it depicted Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong as a person of colour, ideally a lesbian trans-woman. “That’s one small step for a person free of binary gender fetters,” she would say as she planted the rainbow flag in the lunar soil to the tune of a Kylie Minogue song in the background, and “one giant leap for LGBTQI, all other oppressed minorities, and humankind”. Given the leftist revisionism that increasingly pervades both historian and Hollywood, why not?

As for Kelly, he might want to educate himself on the consequences of historical puritanism. As a teenager, he was inspired by reading Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, the story of how the American space program began.

Did it occur to him that its success was in no small part due to German World War II scientists who worked on the project, some of whom were allegedly complicit in Nazi atrocities? As for the heroes of Project Mercury, some of those astronauts were infamous for their philandering, a fact that would be viewed dimly by today’s neo-Pharisees. Should we disavow these men and the program based on those unpalatable truths?

Not at all. Kelly could learn from another retired space commander, albeit a fictitious one. William Shatner, 87, who played Captain James T Kirk in the television and film series Star Trek is a prolific user of social media, and delights in poking the stick at online bullies.

“SJW [social justice warriors] look for anything to flame someone about no matter how petty,” he tweeted last year. “Victim mentality is the big key with them!”

SJW look for anything to flame someone about no matter how petty. Victim mentality is the big key with them! https://t.co/Jxvq36kosp

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 25, 2017

So how should Kelly have responded to the Churchill brouhaha? Pretty simple, really. He should imagine the situation had he been orbiting the earth with these cretins. They would insist everyone eat vegan, demand the module be outfitted to Feng shui requirements, and conduct acknowledgement of country ceremonies for the indigenes of every territory they passed over.

A decisive commander would respond by ensuring every useful member of the crew was secured before opening the airlock so that these censorious simpletons would forever disappear. The problem is solved by denying them oxygen. Do not apologise to these space cadets. If you do, you’ll look like a comical version of Major Tom from that David Bowie classic Space Oddity.

Ground Control to Captain Scott

Ground Control to Captain Scott

Take your headache pills and put your helmet on

Ground control to Captain Scott

This free speech thing it means a lot

‘Check your privilege’ is a rubbish platitude

This is Ground Control to Captain Scott

You’ve really made the grade

And the papers love this Kavanaugh affair

Now it’s time to leave your safe space if you dare

This is Captain Scott to Ground Control

I’m stepping through the door

And I’m quoting in a most innocuous way

“Winston Churchill was magnanimous” I say

But I hear there are people I’ve offended

At least five throughout the world

What I said was true, but there’s nothing I can do

Though I’ve passed ‘bout half a billion miles

I’m feeling very scared

Some millennial has told me where to go

Tell the world that I apologise / oh woe

Ground Control to Captain Scott

That Churchill blot / They’re talking rot

Can you hear me Captain Scott

Can you hear me Captain Scott

Can you — Here am I talking lots of flim-flam

Far across the world

Revise history I will do, to avoid this ballyhoo.