The Space Age Candidate
The Space Age not only forced people to reckon with the otherworldly flavors of Pillsbury's Space Food Sticks and the orange powder drink, Tang, but also the arbitrary nature of national borders. The Berlin Wall remained, but dogs, monkeys, and people were circling the globe. Not just anarchists but corporations were working towards a utopian flow of ideas and goods across those pesky lines. A new space age perspective emerged. In the 1960s Buckminster Fuller started talking about "Spaceship Earth," and soon after environmentalists offered slogans and battle cries such as "Earth First!" As early as the 1940s, SF fans had begun to talk of having the “long view,” as the space age they predicted and helped nurture took shape. Then came sightings of flying saucers, hovering over cities and onto movie screens. Children, particularly boys, added astronaut to their list of future jobs. Space, however, was expensive. Many of...