VOLUME VII, CHAPTER 8, SECTION 2
Moving to Mars Is a Murder, and a Robbing of Wealth and a Taking of Lives
The last section made plain that Mars is a barren land, and that people there could at most drag out a life inside a shell. Following on from this, this section makes two charges stand: that so-called claim to "move people to Mars and leave Earth behind" is a murder, and it is also a robbing of wealth and a taking of lives. It is called murder because, with the excuse that "there is still Mars to fall back on," it loosens people's heart for guarding Earth and lets this one and only paradise be ruined, which is the same as pushing all humankind toward death. It is called robbing wealth and taking lives because it pours vast sums into a dead planet and wastes the wealth and strength that should have gone to tending paradise. These two charges, this section makes plain one layer at a time.
One. First, Tell Apart Two Kinds of People, Two Kinds of Talk
Before setting down these two charges, first tell one thing apart: those who talk of "Mars" are two kinds of people with two kinds of talk, and they cannot be lumped together.
One kind of person talks of Mars as pure exploring: to go and see what that planet is like, to widen what people know of this universe, to test how far human strength can reach. This kind of exploring is in itself no crime; like people's gazing up at the starry sky and wondering since ancient times, it is the real human's share of seeking to know, showing itself. What this section condemns is not this kind. The other kind of person talks of Mars by setting it up as Earth's way out, humankind's final home: preaching that Earth will be abandoned sooner or later, that humankind's future is on Mars, and that therefore the wealth and strength of the whole world should be poured out to move people to Mars on a vast scale. This kind quietly swaps Mars from a thing to explore into a way out for abandoning Earth, a final home that pushes the true home aside and takes its place. The two charges this section sets down condemn exactly this latter kind. Only by telling these two apart do we avoid wrongly blaming pure exploring, and only so can we see where the danger of the latter kind lies.
This telling-apart matters a great deal. Because the latter claim is best at doing its business in the clothes of the former: it wraps the dangerous claim of abandoning Earth in the fine words of exploring the starry sky, so that people wrongly think that to oppose it is to oppose seeking to know, oppose striving forward, oppose the ambition of humankind. And so whoever condemns that claim easily ends up carrying the names "conservative," "short-sighted," "against exploring." So that coat must first be pulled off: exploring is exploring, a way out is a way out; the wonder of gazing up at the starry sky and the claim that preaches abandoning Earth are two different things. What this section condemns is only the claim that sets Earth up as land to be cast off and Mars up as the final home, and would pour out the strength of the whole world to move people on a vast scale; as for pure exploring, that wonder at the universe, this section not only does not condemn it, but sees it as a precious showing of the real human's share of seeking to know. With these two told apart, the two charges below can be set down without wounding innocent exploring by mistake.
Two. Why It Is Murder
First, the first charge: why it is murder. What it takes is not one person's one life, but the lives of all humankind.
The most poisonous layer of that claim to "abandon Earth and rush to Mars" is not that it promises people a dream of Mars, but that through this dream it loosens people's heart for guarding Earth. Once people believe "if Earth is ruined, there is still Mars to fall back on," they grow careless and sure of themselves about the damage now pushing this paradise toward hell: there is a way out anyway, so why strain to guard it? And so the damage that should have been stopped at all costs, no one goes to stop; and the one and only paradise, in this slackness of "there is still a way out," is pushed step by step toward hell. But the last section has already made plain: Mars is a barren land, that way out is false, people in truth have nowhere to fall back to. With a false way out, to loosen people's heart for guarding their true home, to let that true home be ruined, while the way out promised does not exist at all; this one loosening and one ruining destroys the one and only true home of all humankind, and throws away the road of life of all humankind. With a false way out, to lure people into giving up real self-rescue, until in the end the whole race perishes together: if this is not murder, what is it? What it takes is the lives of all humankind.
Someone may argue: those who say Mars is a way out do not necessarily mean to ruin Earth, perhaps they truly believe Mars is a place to go. This argument does not lessen the crime. The crime of murder does not have to lie wholly in intent; to know, or to be bound to know, that a thing will bring people to their deaths, and still preach it and do it, is already a crime. Those who preach Mars as a way out, if only they were willing to look earnestly at the truth of Mars, ought to know that the way out is false, and that once Earth is ruined, people in truth have nowhere to flee; knowing, or bound to know, this, and still luring people into slackness with that false way out, they can hardly escape the blame. Moreover, what is taken here is not one person's one life, but the lives of all humankind, reaching on to the children and grandchildren of ten thousand generations. One person killing one person is murder; one piece of talk endangering the survival of the whole race, its crime is heavier still than an ordinary murder. So to set it down as murder is not to scare people with big words; it is said of the real effect of bringing people to their deaths, and it fits exactly.
Three. Why It Is Robbing Wealth and Taking Lives
Next, the second charge: why it is robbing wealth and taking lives. It uses up the wealth and strength that should guard the home, and throws them at a dead planet.
To guard Earth's seven, to stop that damage, to raise that balance back, takes great strength and great wealth: cleaning up pollution, restoring the soil, tending the waters, protecting living things, every one of them needs people's strength and material means. And the wealth and strength of the world are limited. That claim to "move people to Mars on a vast scale" wants exactly to pour this limited, vast wealth onto a dead waste planet where people have no way to live: building spaceships, building shell-cabins, shipping supplies, at a cost too huge to count. This vast sum, if used on guarding Earth, could have stopped how much damage, raised back how much life; instead it is thrown at that bottomless dead planet, Mars, and lost like a stone skipped on water. This is taking the money that should save lives and using it to fill a pit that can never be filled, a useless pit. On the home's side, wealth is urgently needed to save it, yet because the wealth is drawn off to fill that pit of Mars, it cannot be saved, cannot be guarded. To draw off the wealth that saves lives and leave the home in peril: if this is not robbing wealth and taking lives, what is it? What it robs is the wealth that guards the home; what it harms is the lives of the millions in this home.
The harm here goes one layer deeper. The wealth drawn off to fill that pit of Mars, on the surface, is a shifting of money; underneath, it is people's hearts and people's strength led astray along with it. How much of the world's intelligence and talent, how much of its able-bodied strength, could have gone to cleaning up this Earth's pollution, restoring this Earth's soil, tending this Earth's life; instead it is drawn in and called up by that grand story of "moving to Mars," and plunges headlong into building on that dead planet. The wealth is gone, the people are gone, the hearts are gone too; on the side of saving the home, wealth, people and heart all three come up empty. At a moment when all strength should be raised to save ourselves, to pour wealth, manpower and heart on a vast scale into a dead planet that cannot save itself and cannot hold the multitudes: this is harm that pulls the firewood from under the pot. What it harms is not only that sum of wealth drawn off; it is the whole means by which this home could save itself, the last hope by which the millions in the home live.
Four. Two Charges, Joined in One Place
Murder, and robbing wealth and taking lives, these two charges joined in one place point to one and the same disaster.
On one side, it loosens people's heart for guarding Earth with a false way out and lets paradise be ruined, and what it takes is the lives of all humankind; on the other side, it draws off the vast wealth for guarding the home and throws it at a dead planet, and what it robs is the wealth for guarding the home, what it harms is the lives in the home. One loosening, one drawing off; one breaks down the resolve to save ourselves from the side of the heart, the other empties out the means to save ourselves from the side of wealth; attacking from both sides at once, it pushes this one and only paradise, and the road of life of all humankind, toward a dead end. So these two charges are not two separate things, they are two sides of one and the same disaster: they come out of the one claim to "abandon Earth and rush to Mars," and point to the one evil result of "destroying the one and only home." Only when you see these two joined in one place do you know that the poison and danger of that claim go far beyond what the word "muddle" can cover; it takes the one and only home and road of life of all humankind and bets them on a Mars dream that does not exist.
This bet, the size of its stake has never been seen before or since. An ordinary bet, if lost, costs no more than one person's or one family's fortune; this bet puts down the one and only home of all humankind, the road of life of the whole race for ten thousand generations. And what is it betting to win? A dead planet where people have no way to live at ease, at most dragging out a life in a shell, a dream of a way out that does not exist. To bet the one true home of the whole race on an empty, false way out; to trade the real road of life of millions for a dead waste planet: there is no bet under heaven more losing, more dangerous, more unforgivable than this. See how absurd and how dangerous this bet is, and you know why that claim to "abandon Earth and rush to Mars" must be condemned with these two heaviest charges, murder and robbing wealth and taking lives: because what it endangers is exactly the two greatest things in this world, the two that can least be lost: the home of all humankind, and the lives of all humankind.
Five. The Crime Is in Those Who Push the Claim, Not in Exploring Itself
One more layer must be stated: these two charges fall on those who push that claim to "abandon Earth and rush to Mars," not on the exploring of Mars itself, and still less on that planet, Mars.
That planet, Mars, is innocent; it only sits quietly where it is, a barren waste planet and nothing more. Exploring Mars, widening what we know, testing how far human strength can reach, is no crime either; that is the real human's share of seeking to know, showing itself. The guilty are those who push the claim, who swap exploring for a way out, preach wonder into moving people, loosen people's heart for guarding Earth with a false way out, and fill a dead planet with vast sums while emptying the strength for saving the home. This runs in one line with the lawmaking the whole book has held to: the crime is never in the thing, never in the power, never in the exploring; it is in the person, in the person whose heart is set crooked, who misleads the multitudes with empty talk and puts the home in the way of death. See where the crime lies, and you will not, in condemning that claim, wrongly blame Mars or wrongly blame exploring; and you can then put the strength for guarding Earth in its right place: not to smash exploring, but to set straight the claim that misleads the multitudes, to call people's hearts back from that dream of a false way out, back onto the right road of guarding this one and only paradise at all costs. The next section, following on, asks again: how can such a dangerous claim become so popular? Who is pushing this kind of story?
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.
Section Three. Who Is Pushing This Story, and What This Generation of Real Humans Should Do.