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Russian and American Cosmism: Religion, National Psyche, and Spaceflight

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14777622.2013.801719

1557-2943

Albert A. Harrison,

Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

Abstract A product of science, religion, and national culture, cosmism is reflected in academic and popular views about our place in the universe, space exploration, and human destiny. Although linked historically to the Russians, cosmism captures many aspects of American thinking about space. The present comparison shows that prophets, prophecies, striving for perfection, utopian visions, and hopes for salvation are evident in both Russian and American thought, but that there are also differences. Geert Hofstede's cross–cultural research on national values—power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance—is useful for understanding Russian–American differences. Russian acceptance of power inequalities, collectivism, concern for group welfare, and aversion to uncertainty lead to constellations of beliefs and emotions about spaceflight that differ from those bred by American egalitarianism, individualism, obsession with personal achievement, and acceptance of uncertainty. Both Russian and American thinking include occult and paranormal phenomena, but Americans have been more reluctant to assimilate such influences within mainstream science. As a concept, American cosmism captures the occasional blurring of the lines between religion and science in discussions of humanity's place in the universe and future in space. Notes David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999). Asif A. Siddiqi, “Spaceflight in the National Imagination,” in Steven J. Dick, ed., Remembering the Space Age (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2008), 17–36. Ibid. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). Ibid., 16. Ibid., 126. Francis Wheen, Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, International Power Brokers, and the Erosion of Common Sense (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 121. Asif A. Siddiqi, The Red Rocket's Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010); and George M. Young, Jr., The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and his Followers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). Dmitry Shlapentokh, “The End of the Russian Idea,” Studies in Soviet Thought 43 (1992): 199–217, quote from 201. Linda Billings, “Overview: Ideology, Advocacy and Spaceflight Evolution of a Cultural Narrative,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 483. Asif A. Siddiqi, The Red Rocket's Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Ibid. James T. Andrews, Science for the Masses: The Bolshevik State, Public Science, and the Popular Imagination in Soviet Russia, 1917–1934 (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2003). Ron Miller, “Spaceflight and Popular Culture,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 509. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). Ibid., 87–88. David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999). Gordon Cooper and Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 67–69. Ibid., 68. Ibid., 70. C. E. Mersh, The Apostles of Apollo: The Journey of the Bible to the Moon and the Untold Stories of America's Race into Space (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2011). Ibid. David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999), 141. Victoria Smolin-Rothrock, “Cosmic Enlightenment: Scientific Atheism and the Soviet Conquest of Space,” in James T. Andrews and Asif A. Siddiqi, eds., Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), 159–194. James T. Andrews, Science for the Masses: The Bolshevik State, Public Science, and the Popular Imagination in Soviet Russia, 1917–1934 (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2003). Virgiliu Pop, “Viewpoint: Space and Religion in Russia: Cosmonaut Worship to Orthodox Revival,” Astropolitics 7:2 (2009): 150–163. Ibid., 152. Smolin-Rothrock, “Cosmic Enlightenment.” Ibid., 190. Young, The Russian Cosmists. James T. Andrews, Red Cosmos: K. E. Tsiolkovskii, Grandfather of Soviet Rocketry (College Station, TX: Texas A&M Press, 2009). Michael Hagermeister, “The Consequences of Space and the Bliss of Atoms,” in Eva Maurer, Julia Richers, Monica Ruthers, and Carmen Scheide, eds., Soviet Space Culture: Cosmic Enthusiasm in Socialist Societies (Basington, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 27–41. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Slava Gerovitch, “Memories of Space and Spaces of Memory: Remembering Sergei Korolev,” in Maurer, Richers, Ruthers, and Scheide, eds., Soviet Space Culture: Cosmic Enthusiasm in Socialist Societies, 85–102. Ibid., 97. Ibid., 97. Roger D. Launius, “Compelling Rationales for Spaceflight? History and the Search for Relevance,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight. (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2005), 37–51. David A. Clary, Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age (New York: Hyperion Books, 2003). Marsha Freeman, How We Got to the Moon: The Story of the German Space Pioneers (Washington, DC: 21st Century Science Associates, 1993). Ibid., 7. Ibid. Dennis Piszkiewicz, Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995). Howard E. McCurdy, Space and the American Imagination (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997); Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, Robots in Space (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). Ted Peters, God's Chariots? Flying Saucers in Politics, Science and Religion (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1977), 117. Bob Ward, Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009), 220. Ibid., 28. Launius and McCurdy, Robots in Space. Ibid. Krafft A. Ehricke, “The Anthropology of Astronautics,” Astronautic, November 1957, 26–28, 65–68. Kraft A. Ehricke, “The Extraterrestrial Imperative,” Futures, April 1981, 107–114. Gerard K. O'Neill, The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1978). Wendell Mendel, “Space Activism as an Epiphanic Belief System,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 573–583. Shlapentokh, “The End of the Russian Idea,” 203. Billings, “Overview,” 483. William E. Burrows, This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age (New York, NY: Random House, 1998). Roger D. Launius, “Perceptions of Apollo: Myth, Nostalgia, Memory, or All of the Above?” Space Policy 21 (2005): 129–139. Ibid. Cooper and Henderson, Leap of Faith, 114. Greg Klerkx, Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2004), 6. Roger D. Launius, “Perceptions of Apollo.” Geert Hofstede, Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1980); and see Juris G. Draguns and Albert A. Harrison, “Cross-Cultural and Spaceflight Psychology,” in Douglas A. Vakoch, ed., In Orbit and Beyond (New York: Springer, in press). Geert Hofstede, “National Culture,” http:www//geert-hofstede.com.countries.html (accessed October 2012). Jennifer B. Ritsher, “Cultural Factors and the International Space Station,” Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine 76:6 supplement II (2005): B135–B144. Heather L. Gumbert, “Cold War Theaters: Cosmonaut Titov at the Berlin Wall,” in Andrews and Siddiqi, eds., Into the Cosmos, 240–262. Andre Rogatchevski, “Space Exploration in Russian and Western Popular Culture: Wishful Thinking, Conspiracy Theories, and Other Related Issues,” in Maurer, Richers, Ruthers, and Scheide, eds., Soviet Space Culture in Socialist Societies, 251–256. Heather L. Gumbert, “Cold War Theaters,” 252. Matthias Schwartz, “A Dream Come True: Close Encounters with Outer Space in Soviet Popular Scientific Journals of the 1950s and 1960s,” in Eva Maurer, Julia Richers, Monica Ruthers and Carmen Scheide, eds., Soviet Space Culture in Socialist Societies. (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 232–265. George Young, The Russian Cosmists, 4. Albert A. Harrison, Starstruck: Cosmic Visions in Science, Religion and Folklore (New York, NY: Berghahn, 2007). Frank White, The Overview Effect (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1987). Ibid., 43. Ibid., 26. Edgar Mitchell and Dwight Williams, The Way of the Explorer (New York, NY: Putnam, 1996). Arne A. Wyller, The Planetary Mind (Aspen, CO: MacMurray & Beck, 1996), 246. Ben Finney and Eric M. Jones, eds., Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984). Steven J. Dick and Mark Lupisella, eds., Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context. (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2009). Steven J. Dick, “Cosmic Humanity,” in Allen Tough, ed., When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High Information Contact (Bellevue, WA: Foundation for the Future, 2000), 93–102. Albert A. Harrison, “The Science and Politics of SETI: How to Succeed in an Era of Make Believe History and Pseudoscience,” in Douglas A. Vakoch and Albert A. Harrison, eds., Civilizations Beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Life and Society. (New York: Berghahn, 2011), 141–158. Donald E. Tarter, “Looking for God and Space Aliens,” Free Inquiry 20 (Summer 2000): 38–39. Ted Peters, “Astrotheology and the ETI Myth,” Theology and Science 7:1 (2009): 3–29. Albert A. Harrison “The ETI Myth: Idolatrous Fantasy or Plausible Inference?” Theology and Science 8:1 (2010): 51–67. Harrison, Starstruck. Matthias Schwartz, “A Dream Come True.” George P. Hansen. The Trickster and the Paranormal (Philadelphia: Ex Libris, 2001). 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