Space Race
Ethics is so often a matter of widening the net of inclusion . In the west , it begins with only white , property-owning , males having moral standing . Then , perhaps , white males in general . Then white women . Then non-white men and women . Then non-white humans who don ’ t wish to identify as one sex . Then , maybe , animals . Perhaps eventually plants . The history of ethics reads like an exclusive country club that , little by little , gets more progressive and allows a few select others through its doors , over its walls . But perhaps this has been wrong in spirit all along . Perhaps accepting the need for a wall is always wrong�starting the discussion about ethics in exactly the wrong way because then morality is reduced to debating who gets to be on which side of that wall , and never really debating the wall itself , never really debating the presuppositions of our traditions and concepts .
For the last several years , I have been thinking about an ethic for rocks�thinking that lifeism is one of the prejudices we must overcome . Can the moon be better or worse off even though it is not alive ? Just because it is dry and lifeless�like Mars�does that mean we have a blank check to do anything we want with it ? Can a rock flourish ? I was inspired to ask these questions by that moon rock at the Neil Armstrong museum I saw so often as a child . Perhaps it was the third most important person in my early years . I owe much to it . And yet .... We have taken so much from the moon ; maybe it is time to give something back . Perhaps , as hard as it is to imagine , it is time to repatriate some of the moon rocks we ’ ve taken , sending them home , finding a new way to exist together . ( See figure 7 .)
Phase 8 : Old Crescent
The word “ we ” is always a loaded word . “ We ” look up and see eight phases of the moon . But “ we ” have been conditioned
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