Our Butt-Sitting Couch Rot Is Reflected in Our Choice of Heroes — Lauded Consumerist Steve Jobs versus the Mostly Ignored Frontier-Advancer, Elon Musk

© 2012 Peter Free

 

01 June 2012

 

 

Which of these two men has advanced human spirit more inspirationally?

 

Steve Jobs, genius gadget man, received gobs of consumers’ admiring appreciation — but Elon Musk is the one actually moving the United States’ national soul forward again.

 

At least, in my little-boy-equivalent estimation.

 

Musk’s SpaceX just pulled off the single most admirable private enterprise success story that I can recall.  The company successfully launched and recovered its Dragan spacecraft in a resupply mission to the International Space Station.  No non-governmental entity has ever done that.

 

When we consider the scientific and entrepreneurial hurdles that Musk had to overcome to do this, we should be deeply impressed.  And appreciative.  

 

 

The moral? — When a nation goes to sleep, it takes a leadership genius to wake it

 

What this country needs (more than anything else) is a sense of purpose that goes beyond simply consuming electronic gizmos that divert us from paying attention to the details of living.

 

As someone who stared up at the Soviet Union’s first sputnik with excitement and embraced the United States’ success in putting people on the moon, I am grateful that SpaceX has picked up the mantle that America disappointingly dropped.

 

Musk’s inspiring example invites the imaginative child in many of us to climb aboard and contribute.