VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 8
Mars Is Not a Way Out
The last chapter made plain that the human world people return to is Earth, the one and only paradise in this universe, now being pushed toward hell; and at its end it left one question: some say it does not matter if this planet is spoiled, people can move somewhere else, Mars, say. Is that right? This chapter takes up that question, and it is also the last chapter of the Earth group. In three sections, this chapter breaks that story of "abandon Earth and rush to Mars," and brings to a close the great matter of guarding Earth. First it sets down the truth of Mars: it is a barren land, people there could at most drag out a life inside a shell, and it is in truth no way out. Then it sets down two charges: that claim to "move to Mars and leave Earth behind" is a murder, and it is also a robbing of wealth and a taking of lives. Last it asks who is pushing this story, and makes plain the responsibility of the real humans of this generation: see through those several forces, guard this one and only paradise, set straight the hearts of the people who use the power.
Section One first lays out the truth of Mars, and sets it against the seven of the last chapter one by one. That layer outside Mars is so thin it is almost nothing, and it cannot be breathed; the surface is dried up, and whatever little water there is, is either sealed as hard ice or hidden underground; the whole ground is dead red sand and stone, not a blade of grass grows; it is farther from the sun, the cold cuts to the bone, the gap between day and night is huge. Of the seven, Mars has not one. If people really went, they could only hide inside sealed cabins, holding on barely by air, water and food carried from Earth or made with the utmost labor; let the shell break, let the supply stop, and they die on the spot. From here the section goes one step further: the dragged-out life inside the shell is not only the hardship of the body, it is the drying-up of the five, of the human world; with no human world, there are no five. To take Mars as a way out is a dangerous illusion, and it makes people ever more careless, ever more sure of themselves, about the spoiling going on right now. Beyond Earth, people have nowhere at all to fall back to.
Section Two makes the two charges stand. Before setting down the charges, it first tells apart two kinds of people, two kinds of talk. One kind talks of Mars as pure exploring, which the section sees as the real human's share of seeking to know, showing itself, and does not condemn; the other kind sets Mars up as Earth's way out, humankind's final home, and would pour out the wealth and strength of the whole world to move people on a vast scale, and this kind alone is what the section condemns. Why is it murder? With a false way out, it loosens people's heart for guarding their true home and lets that true home be ruined, and what it takes is the lives of all humankind. Why is it robbing wealth and taking lives? Cleaning up pollution, restoring the soil, tending the waters, protecting living things, every one needs great wealth, and the wealth and strength of the world are limited; to throw vast sums at that dead planet, Mars, is taking the money that should save lives and using it to fill a pit that can never be filled, and intelligence and talent, able-bodied strength, are led astray along with it, so that on the side of saving the home, wealth, people and heart all three come up empty. At its end the section states: the crime is in those who push the claim, not in that planet, Mars, and not in exploring itself.
Section Three first answers who is pushing this kind of story. Underneath are several forces: the force of chasing profit, since building spaceships, building shell-cabins, running the moving of people is a business as big as the sky; the force of dodging responsibility, drawing the eye toward a far-off dream, which happens to dodge the responsibility, before the eyes, for spoiling Earth; the force of craving the new and hunting the strange, since a grand, sweeping story spreads far more easily than that plain truth of "honestly guarding Earth well." Three private hearts flow into one combined force; that noise is not reason, it is a conspiracy of private hearts. Then it comes down to the real humans of this generation: for the first time they hold in their hands a power great enough to ruin their own home, and to guard this one and only paradise is a responsibility they cannot escape. This responsibility, brought down to solid ground, is no more than the five: for example, keeping the self-discipline not to spoil a single blade of grass or a single tree, minding whether children and grandchildren will still have a paradise to live in. How is it guarded? Not by smashing that power, banning that tool, abolishing that exploring, but by setting straight the hearts of the people who use the power, so that the power of destruction turns into a power of tending.
What this chapter makes firm is: Mars is no way out, and people in truth have no way out; the claim to abandon Earth and rush to Mars is a murder, and also a robbing of wealth and a taking of lives; to guard this one and only paradise is the responsibility the real humans of this generation cannot escape, and the root of guarding it is in setting straight the hearts of the people who use the power. With this, the Earth group is fully set up. The next chapter turns to the last close of the whole volume, and asks, underneath all of this, what kind of heart is it. The answer is one line: Originally, not a single thing; great love remains in the human world.
Chapter contents:
Section One. What Mars Is: a Barren Land.
Section Two. Moving to Mars Is a Murder, and a Robbing of Wealth and a Taking of Lives.
Section Three. Who Is Pushing This Story, and What This Generation of Real Humans Should Do.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.