All too often those in opposition to the current government, military and corporate
monopoly of space exploration fail to set themselves realistic goals. And all
too often this failure, this lack of a structured and disciplined plan of action
for obtaining independent space exploration, leads to cynicism, despair, defeatism
and, in some cases, insanity. The Association of Autonomous Astronauts know
that to achieve our goals we must firstly understand the terrain we are playing
on. So our Five Year Plan emphasises the need for rigorous training. However,
unlike our enemies at NASA, we do not concentrate on physical capabilities,
scientific careerism or military brainwashing.
Autonomous Astronauts must think for themselves. This is why the Association of Autonomous Astronauts research skills that use the imagination, requiring the ability to move in several directions at once, exploring the power to abolish beliefs we are commonly socialised into accepting. Playing three-sided football has been a crucial component to training at Inner City AAA, who report that it improves competence in deception, even preparing players for learning how to change and adapt the terrain they play on.
The year 2000 is right around the corner
People frequently ask us, 'Why is the AAA about forming a group. Why can't people join the AAA?'. Of course people can join the AAA. The best way is by joining a local group, since the AAA's Five Year Plan aims to create a world-wide network of local, community-based groups dedicated to building their own spaceships. However, this network is still growing and there may well not be local groups in existence for many people, which is why we are encouraging people to start their own. The important element to remember is that the AAA develops in a non-hierarchical way, through networks, so that once you start a group you can connect with others for the exchange of ideas and information.
People also like to bring up the idea of evolution and question our claim that we represent an important developement in the evolutionary process. We try and make them look at it from the following perspective. The first thing that would impress a visitor from outer space would be the tremendous, inexplicable gap between potential and performance. It's amazing when you consider what humans can do in terms of their potential, and what they actually do. No species that isn't fundamentally flawed could be so stupid this consistently. Our destiny, in terms of evolution, is in space, and our failure to achieve this is the basic flaw in the human species that has so far maintained this huge difference between potential and actuality. To put it simply; space travel is necessary-evolution implies it.
The first step towards space exploration is to examine the human with certain biological alterations that would make it more suitable for space conditions and space travel. Now at the present moment we are like creatures in water looking up at the air and wondering how we could survive in that alien environment. The water we live in is time. That alien environment that we glimpse beyond time is space. There is the basic assumption that there is no real biological change involved in space travel, the same dreary people playing out the same tired old roles. Can you really imagine taking your same pastimes light years into space?
A clue to the biological changes necessary to space travel involves the question of weight. The human body weighs an average of 170 pounds and that is a decided disadvantage in space. But regarding this question of weight, we do have a model at hand of a much lighter body, a body which is virtually weightless, and that is the astral dream body. Dreams may also give us insight into space conditions, a vital link to our biological and spiritual destiny in space.
Only those who attempt the impossible will achieve the absurd
The Five Year Plan also emphasises the need for spreading a diversity of ideas about space travel. Through a world-wide network of groups dedicated to developing their own independent space exploration programmes, ideas collide with each other and new possibilities are made available. Unlike the bureaucratic structures of government space agencies, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts grows laterally, branching out in several directions at once. We understand that to achieve our goals, the form that we organise in and the way we connect to each other is as important, perhaps more important, than the propaganda we produce.
Creating a critical distance between ourselves and our space exploration projects is another important element to the Five Year Plan. Autonomous Astronauts are constantly questioning what they are doing, looking at space travel from new angles, considering other possibilities and directions to move in. Only by doing this can the Autonomous Astronaut avoid the pitfall of completely basing their identity on being a space explorer. We must be ourselves first and foremost, and Autonomous Astronauts only after that. If identity becomes cemented to the process of Autonomous Astronauts struggling to develop independent space exploration programmes, how soon before these Autonomous Astronauts inherit a vested interest in actually maintaining the status-quo?
The Association of Autonomous Astronauts recognises that to fully achieve our goals we may well have to entirely re-invent current attitudes to space travel. But Inner City AAA are confident that the Five Year Plan which emphasises structured and disciplined projects, realistic short-term goals, rigorous training, a world-wide network and the constantly revised critical distance between ourselves and our space programmes, will be enough to change minds.
Everything you ever wanted on Planet Earth, and never received, will be yours in Outer Space...
It is an appropriate moment to consider some of the responses made so far to the Association of Autonomous Astronaut's Five Year Plan for establishing a world-wide network of independent and community-based space exploration groups.
There have been small-minded idiots working in various arms of the media industry who attempt to denigrate our efforts and pass them off as being completely ludicrous. For example, The James Whale Show rejected us at the last moment on the grounds that we would be too esoteric for their audience. These responses always dispute the possibility of us achieving our goals because of the vast amount of money that must surely be required. Our reaction to this evident lack of imagination is composed of several levels. We can patiently remind these buffoons that an evolutionary impetus cannot be prevented from fulfilling what it pursues; after-all, the dreams of those who desire to doubt everything transform the world. We can also suggest that re-inventing current attitudes to space travel may well demand a total redistribution of resources throughout society, and that, in any case, some forms of space travel may well turn out to be surprisingly cheap. The point is, of course, that only those who attempt the impossible will achieve the absurd.
There are those sad fools who proclaim their opposition to all forms of oppression but then ridicule the AAA's activities because we don't deal with 'reality'. As if they can stand in judgement over us and pronounce what is and is not to be considered as 'reality'. The AAA can show these imbeciles how we are in control of our own 'realities'; by creating independent space programmes and building our own spaceships, we do not need anyone to tell us what can and cannot be thought, experienced, dreamt of etc. After-all, we have learnt to travel in space.
And then comes those packs of intellectuals, the twits who consider themselves so clever just because they can detect some subliminal advertising, and who tell us in extremely patronising tones how they can appreciate our endeavours as a form of serious joke, or even worse, as a metaphor for other struggles. These twats proudly inform us, as if they've just completed another cross-word puzzle, how great it is that we are creating a living myth that anyone can participate in. Surely nothing but contempt should be spared for these slime-balls, so full of themselves they remain oblivious to the efforts of the AAA as we achieve definite results, prepared to put our theories into practice.
The AAA will not be pigeon-holed and adopt a fixed agenda, or pin-pointed to any single ideology. The AAA moves in several directions at once, using our own well-placed contradictions. The evolution will come because of the infiltration of clear and articulate language into the area of human space exploration. As a response to the present situation of government, military and corporate control of space travel, the AAA represents that evolution.