Facts of the Matter
Facts of the Matter
The events of Sept. 11 have left our country, if not the world, in a state of transition. It has been said that the world changed that day, as we learned to see it and our lives differently. Sept. 11 attack
recalls SputnikShocking events have a way of doing that. Historians try to make sense out of them, and it seems that they are constantly rewriting history to reflect current attitudes.
Paul Dickson, for example, recently wrote a book called "Sputnik: Shock of the Century," about the effects of the launching of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, on Oct. 4, 1957. The ramifications of this beginning of the space age were more complex than would appear at first glance. Aside from the microminiaturization and other technological benefits that grew from the space race, Dickson found many changes in American society that he attributed to Sputnik.
It has been noted elsewhere that a Soviet satellite passing over the United States made lots of folks nervous, but it was not just the satellite that increased Cold War paranoia. Three days after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, beating the Americans into space, the Soviets detonated their first thermonuclear explosion. Putting two and two together, it became clear that if you could launch a satellite and had an H-bomb, it was possible to target anywhere in the world, including the United States, with nuclear weapons that had the potential for unthinkable destruction.
Author Stephen King contends that Sputnik was a key factor in his becoming a writer of horror fiction. Little Richard was so shocked by the appearance of Sputnik in the sky as he was performing an outdoor concert that he renounced rock 'n' roll (temporarily) and became a preacher.
Dickson NoteS THAT the resulting arms and space races sparked many unforeseen changes, including a mechanism of Cold War detente. He claims that the efforts of the space race diverted resources away from military buildups and instead put the emphasis on intelligence gathering and spy networks. The resulting mediation of tensions helped prevent potentially disastrous military showdowns between the two Cold War superpowers.
The fear that the United States seemed to be losing its technical superiority prompted the National Defense Education Act, which stressed science but also advocated creative and independent thought. There was increased emphasis on scientific and mathematical education. The amount of homework increased in schools nationwide. The realization that the Soviet Union was directing women to technical occupations fed an increase in women in technical occupations in the United States and ultimately led to the women's liberation movement, according to Dickson.
Young people used their NDEA-funded independent-thinking skills to challenge the establishment on everything from civil rights and Vietnam to long hair and free love. It also sparked the civil rights movement in the South, which had been stagnating in cultural lethargy since the end of the Civil War.
Many knew that it marked an important turning point in history, but no one would have predicted those precise downstream developments at the time of Sputnik. Similarly, we have no way of knowing precisely what kind of changes the Sept. 11 events will give birth to.
We could all be a little smarter, no? Richard Brill picks up
where your high school science teacher left off. He is a professor of science
at Honolulu Community College, where he teaches earth and physical
science and investigates life and the universe.
He can be contacted by e-mail at rickb@hcc.hawaii.edu
