Astronauts have a cool job. Nearly every one of us wanted to be one at some point in our childhood. So why are none of us doing spacewalks and posting about it about on Instagram ( which has to be the ultimate “flex”)?
( Because we settled…we settled HARD).
But really…The same reason we sweat before having to speak publicly, have trouble sleeping the night before a big test, and are irritable in rush hour traffic. Our reptile brains don’t have the “right stuff.” ( Pardon the pun). We’re filled with anxious energy. It’s understandable. When we really think about it, the world really is trying to kill us at every moment. Humans have the unique ability to envision a future; a blessing and a curse. The uncertainty of those projections in our brains causes an anxious feedback loop that’s hard to stop. “What if I can’t pay the mortgage? Oh, my heart is racing. What if I can’t calm down. I’ll have a heart attack and die. If I die, how will my kids eat? Go to college. My heart is racing harder. Shit, there’s another meeting request I don’t have time for.”…. And on and on.
When you’re alone in Space, having your mind go to similar places means death. Panic would end a $5B mission, and end you simultaneously. NASA has known this for some time. So, what is the antidote for that? Find very smart and special humans, and train the “panic” out of them. In the late 1960’s, candidates for the Apollo program would have to go through extreme outdoor trainings in Iceland and Arizona. Later, Astronaut Jerry Lineger, a former Navy Pilot who in 1997 was the first American to Spacewalk from Russia’s Mir Space Station, was tested by being dropped, along with three other candidate aviators, into a jungle in the Philippines. They had zero provisions. Zero clue where they were. Imagine how scary that would be? Now NASA puts prospective astronauts through 2 years of simulated underwater space walks, on land survival exercises… before they’re accepted into the program.
Imagine if American schools taught such skills – If we were tested like this regularly, on numerous occasions, would our anxiety be so high right now about the uncertainly of a peri and post COVID-19 World? How confident would we be in facing the reality in front of us? Catastrophes visit everyone. No one escapes. How much better would they be handled if the vast majority had the mental skills to be resilient and level-headed in the midst of true adversity. If these skills were taught at an early age, could you imagine how quickly we quell emergencies, and are able to innovate as a group on a compounded basis.
Instead, we have UC Berkeley offering adulting classes . Because it’s apparently necessary. We’ve left, at least, a couple of generations unprepared for true adversity. Jonathan Haidt and Lukianoff cover this topic in all of it’s unfortunate truth, in their book “The Coddling of the American Mind.” We’ve become accustomed to not facing anything on our own. We expect a safety net for everything. We expect it for our finances when we spend too much. We expect it for our unhealthy lifestyles in the form of a life-saving medicine. We have the ability to change course, take responsibility, and re-learn the skills we’ve forgotten. We have the time now, and great examples throughout history to use as a guide ( to be discussed more soon). Let’s make it happen.
Until then.
Andrew L Hamilton 