I would honestly peg him as left-adjacent. He saw science and technology as things that should be used to better human lives and in his own word "cherish" the home we have through ecology. He was never an anti-communist, I think as a scientist he saw himself as a bit "above" that kind of politics. I am sure he was an admirer of the ambitions of socialism and the soviet space program. He was fervently against nuclear war.
Maybe I'm still a lib for it but I get tears in my eyes when I watch Contact and the alien ambassador tells Ellie that "You are an interesting species. An interesting mix. You are capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares."
Because we are. When we right out material reality, when we "fix" the preconditions that inspire the cruelty of our species, I think we will see far more beautiful dreams than horrible nightmares. But the beautiful dreams still occur despite the nightmarish conditions of life. My ambition in life is to be some small part in the balancing of that imbalance.
Sagan was fundamentally a believer in that things could be better and was not a anti communist zealot .
I would honestly peg him as left-adjacent. He saw science and technology as things that should be used to better human lives and in his own word "cherish" the home we have through ecology. He was never an anti-communist, I think as a scientist he saw himself as a bit "above" that kind of politics. I am sure he was an admirer of the ambitions of socialism and the soviet space program. He was fervently against nuclear war.
Maybe I'm still a lib for it but I get tears in my eyes when I watch Contact and the alien ambassador tells Ellie that "You are an interesting species. An interesting mix. You are capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares."
Because we are. When we right out material reality, when we "fix" the preconditions that inspire the cruelty of our species, I think we will see far more beautiful dreams than horrible nightmares. But the beautiful dreams still occur despite the nightmarish conditions of life. My ambition in life is to be some small part in the balancing of that imbalance.
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