The Space Shuttle misdirection (1991)

From the introduction:

Thus far we have seen Wang Huning marvel at the wonders of American science and ponder the sources of America’s technological might. In the sections of America Against America translated below, Wang Huning turns that last question on its head. Instead of asking what aspects of American society push Americans to build the technologies of tomorrow, Wang instead asks how technological progress has changed the nature of American society. He treats this question in two sections of America Against America. The first is found in a chapter devoted to the American national character, the second in a chapter that describes the various techniques of social control Wang observed while traveling through the United States. Both of these passages are translated below. They reach a similar conclusion: Americans’ most abiding faith is in science and technology. There is no authority that Americans trust more. To every social, ethical, or even spiritual problem the American first seeks a technical or scientific solution.

Wang is skeptical of this impulse. He asks his readers to consider the situation faced by Americans with physical disabilities. There is no shortage of American engineers and inventors ready to craft new machinery to ease their difficulties. Thus the infirm may purchase motorized wheel chairs; the blind may buy computers that respond to voice commands. These devices improve the wellbeing of those who use them—within limits. However, no machine can protect them from the prejudice of their countrymen. No device can defend the dignity of the downtrodden. These problems defy technological solutions.

Wang argues that the American love affair with gadgetry can be understood as a convenient diversion from this class of thorny moral and political problems. Thus the space shuttle Discovery, celebrated in other parts of America Against America as the physical embodiment of the American spirit of ingenuity, is here described as an expensive boondoggle whose true mission has less to do with new scientific frontiers than with saving the political fortunes of a government agency threatened by potential budget cuts. Science promises to reveal basic truths about physical reality; the aura of science, on the other hand, obscures as much as it unveils.