Russian and American Cosmism: Religion, National Psyche, and Spaceflight

摘要

Abstract A product of science, religion, and national culture, cosmism is reflected in academic and popular views about our place in the universe, space exploration, and human destiny. Although linked historically to the Russians, cosmism captures many aspects of American thinking about space. The present comparison shows that prophets, prophecies, striving for perfection, utopian visions, and hopes for salvation are evident in both Russian and American thought, but that there are also differences. Geert Hofstede's cross–cultural research on national values—power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance—is useful for understanding Russian–American differences. Russian acceptance of power inequalities, collectivism, concern for group welfare, and aversion to uncertainty lead to constellations of beliefs and emotions about spaceflight that differ from those bred by American egalitarianism, individualism, obsession with personal achievement, and acceptance of uncertainty. Both Russian and American thinking include occult and paranormal phenomena, but Americans have been more reluctant to assimilate such influences within mainstream science. As a concept, American cosmism captures the occasional blurring of the lines between religion and science in discussions of humanity's place in the universe and future in space. Notes David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999). Asif A. Siddiqi, “Spaceflight in the National Imagination,” in Steven J. Dick, ed., Remembering the Space Age (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2008), 17–36. Ibid. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). Ibid., 16. Ibid., 126. Francis Wheen, Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, International Power Brokers, and the Erosion of Common Sense (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 121. Asif A. Siddiqi, The Red Rocket's Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010); and George M. Young, Jr., The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and his Followers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). Dmitry Shlapentokh, “The End of the Russian Idea,” Studies in Soviet Thought 43 (1992): 199–217, quote from 201. Linda Billings, “Overview: Ideology, Advocacy and Spaceflight Evolution of a Cultural Narrative,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 483. Asif A. Siddiqi, The Red Rocket's Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Ibid. James T. Andrews, Science for the Masses: The Bolshevik State, Public Science, and the Popular Imagination in Soviet Russia, 1917–1934 (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2003). Ron Miller, “Spaceflight and Popular Culture,” in Steven J. Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2007), 509. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). Ibid., 87–88. David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999). Gordon Cooper and Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 67–69. Ibid., 68. Ibid., 70. C. E. Mersh, The Apostles of Apollo: The Journey of the Bible to the Moon and the Untold Stories of America's Race into Space (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2011). Ibid. David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin, 1999), 141. Victoria Smolin-Rothrock, “Cosmic Enlightenment: Scientific Atheism and the Soviet Conquest of Space,” in James T. Andrews and Asif A. Siddiqi, eds., Into the Cos