Let me finish by saying that you know I'm not really invested in this product of human imagination. Therefore, I am not a buyer and although you had a good sales pitch where you have an answer to all my questions and skepticism, that effort on me is in vain.
My counter-arguments may be though a welcome opportunity to have dispelled them to your satisfaction and to inspire you personally rather than slow you down, just as a business idea from my company once prepared us better for buyer skepticism for future sales appointments.
I am sure that people will continue to pursue the idea of traveling to space and that the skeptics in particular will help them to argue articulated problem scenarios out of the way.
It sometimes seems more like a cosmic joke to me that humanity, which you trust to overcome all problems, should not use the same intelligence and good will for a livable existence on its own planet rather than outgrow it.
The cynic replies: “Fuck the earth”, the adventurer says “Off to new shores!”, while both confirm the preserver in his view that they don't care at all what they so willingly leave behind. And although both are completely dependent on what the earth gives them in the form of treasures to get them started, they seem to me like those who quickly run across a bridge whose collapse they have helped to cause and happily shout “First!”. No offense to you personally.
So it's the attitude that - I'm deliberately exaggerating - gives the impression that one is happy to throw something one's used in the bin for something new. As long as the space enthusiasts give the skeptics the impression that both things cannot go side by side - keeping the old intact and starting the new - they will be viewed more like immature and selfish teenagers, as well as from the other side as know it alls and backwards.
You might think that those who wanted to stay at home would then have this earthly home to themselves and would be happy to see the nest-busters finally gone. In this respect, they would have the big living room to themselves.
‘Travellers should not be stopped’ is just as true as not urging those who stay at home to come along. So the leavers must only be allowed to go as far as they do not completely exploit those who stay behind and do not treat the earthly treasure like a disposable good.
In any relationship where the involved wish to part, they would be well advised to go their separate ways in such a spirit that they wish each other every success and do not make the other's living conditions miserable. In other words, to separate in mutual agreement, respecting the different world views, instead of being hostile to each other from now on.
Which then reveals the paradox: If human beings were capable of something like this, of wishing each other well and leaving each other as much as they need for their existence, the question arises: why separate in the first place if you're basically capable of staying together? LoL
Is it even possible to divorce out of love?
The traveller himself will grow old and he may want to have the reassuring feeling of being able to return to his roots at some time. Even if it is impossible in reality, people are wired in such a way that the mere idea that there is a home waiting for them can be comforting. In the same sense, people, who actually never travelled the Earth itself, have the reassuring impression that they could, if they wanted.
I thank you very much on my part to have given me your listening ear to articulate my own thoughts in this respect and having them laid out.
You never fail to engage me, to reveal segues and corners around which I never peeked.
I will say this. The meek will inherit the Earth. The rest of the universe is for the bold.
:) Well said.