jim@pnet01.cts.COM (Jim Bowery) (12/21/89)
Johnson Space Center has defined itself as the primary strategic
target in any attempt to reform NASA. We should all (PARTICULARLY
THOSE OF US AT THE GRASSROOTS) seek ways in which we can dismantle
JSC's power to engage in monumental waste and corruption, rather than
propping up its ponderous bureaucratic weight long enough for it to
take the "next logical step" in establishing total suppression of
progress in space.
In NASA funding priorities, the pecking order goes:
1) Johnson Space Center
2) Other Southern Centers
3) The contractors for the above two
4) Other Centers
5) The contractors for other Centers
6) Outside investigators
The difference between this and real government funded research
organizations is most apparent if one looks at the way NSF
worked so successfully over the last 20 years:
1) Outside investigators
2) Administration of the NSF peer-review process
>From its inception, JSC has embodied the triumph of politics
over progress. JSC culture, showing itself capable of suppressing
genuine research in favor of centralizing cashflows in the hands of
a very few, has "taught" others in the pecking order that one can
either spend all of one's time begging for a few dollars from the
hands of those who have "learned to play the game", being rewarded
with the ability to do the world some good if one succeeds, or one
can "learn to play the game" better than others, being rewarded
directly with personal power and prestige if one succeeds.
This dramatically favors those who are leaders in demonstrating they are
short-sighted, selfish and lack character or technical competence. They
turned their backs on progress and began to "learn the game" earlier and
are therefore the very people who are least able, ethically and technically,
to make appropriate judgements as to how to structure the cashflows, and
most likely to be as corrupt as they can get away with inside the labyrinths
of the government and aerospace industry.
Therefore, JSC as the political leader in the suppression of scientific
and technical progress in the United States is the primary target
for energies aimed to recovering United States preeminence in space,
science and technology.
JSC's political power is based on the perception by elected officials
that the grassroots opinion of JSC's manned program ranges from mild
annoyance at the high cost to unbridled enthusiasm for the heroic
flights of astronauts and images of a new frontier in space. Also,
there is the belief that the grassroots sees JSC, as it exists today,
as the primary force behind the success of the Apollo program -- one of
the last moments of great national pride.
Therefore, it is the GRASSROOTS who have power over the reform of JSC
and, indirectly, the pathological structure of our space program and
research institutions. That's right -- people like YOU AND ME!
In fact, our power to REFORM the space program is far greater than
is our power to increase its budget. Think
about it -- all Congressman EXPECT to hear from the grassroots about
the space program is how wonderful it is and how we should give NASA
as much money as it wants for whatever it wants. The only CRITICS of
the space program they hear from are those who have a vested interest
in grabbing NASA's funding or playing political turf wars.
WE CAN REALLY GET THEIR ATTENTION BY GOING IN AS GRASSROOTS SPACE
ENTHUSIASTS (including manned space) FOR REFORM OF THE SPACE PROGRAM.
If WE THE PEONS simply make it clear that we are very unhappy
with JSC spoon-feeding us morsels of Apollo's rotting carrion, we
can demand that JSC be eliminated as the top of the destructive
pecking order and insist that measures be taken which will discourage
those with weak character from "taking the bait" when presented
with similar opportunities in the future. That way, whether or
not there is a shift of government funds from military to space,
we can achieve the kind of progress NASA always promises and
will never deliver.
The simplest, most direct route to do this is to auction off (privatize)
the STS (Shuttle system) using the revenue to pay for the costs of voluntary
early retirement around JSC, divide up JSC's (and STS's) budget among the
other NASA centers and convert the remaining facilities around JSC into an
Apollo Museum containing relics of the Apollo era (perhaps a Houston branch
of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, with the moon-rocks in its care and
keeping).
If even a SMALL group AT THE GRASSROOTS (no one with a direct interest in
funding for space activities) started getting organized behind something
like this, some Congressmen are willing to fight for appropriate
legislation.
I know which direction I'd rather go.
Send me private E-Mail if you want to be a "peon" who makes a real
difference.
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Typical RESEARCH grant:
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