Soviet cartoon soundtrack, circa 1981 apparently… people in the comments seem to remember this Mystery of the Third Planet. As I would any of the cartoons from my childhood as well. These were the last days of the 1st Space Age, weren’t they? The general public still dreamed that our future would include, if not be comprised entirely, of life in Outer Space. We were already bandying about the sad idea that Utopianism was just a childish dream, but it did persist in science fiction. Of course it always came with a stern warning that it ran contrary to human nature and that sooner or later everyone would have to choose violence to defend Utopia… hence no real Utopia at all. We countered with the glorification of strong militarization as an inevitability.

Eh, I prefer the Sci-Fi version, where sure there was danger, but it was a shared danger and we all looked out for each other. Call the dream naive. Call me naive, but if you’re going to dream it may as well be a good dream, right?

So this morning I am mournful of the dream of the future that never came to be. I am mournful of the loss of dreaming and collective ideals. Things we could all strive for together, rather than sitting around regurgitating obtuse mythologies that we were already living in the best place in the best way possible… the myths of moral certainty and of a birthright of rightness. Ugh.

I am in mourning today.