Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

aMerICaN SpaCefLIght hIStory’S MaSter NarratIve
aND the MeaNINg of MeMory
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While the program claimed to “Let the viewer decide” about the validity of the
claims for denial of the Moon landings, it made no attempt whatsoever to ofer
point and counterpoint, thereby giving the viewers a seriously biased view of
the issue and skewed evidence in favor of a hoax.
the fox television show exposed the arguments of the Moon landing
deniers to a much broader public than ever before. as Linda Degh noted, “the
mass media catapult these half-truths into a kind of twilight zone where people
can make their guesses sound as truths. Mass media have a terrible impact on
people who lack guidance.” 79 Without a proper rebuttal available from NaSa—
the agency had taken an ofcial position before of not responding to what it
considered absurd claims—many young people publicly began to question the
apollo landings. Several astronauts stepped forward to afrm the legitimacy of
the program, but others thought the charges too silly to warrant response. Many
debated the issues in the emerging world of the Internet. Indeed, the Internet
became a haven for conspiracy theorists of all stripes, and with the barrier for
publication online so low anyone could put up any page they wished with any
assertions they wished to make. but it also became a haven for counters to the
conspiracy theorists and a healthy debate has resulted. 80
at the same time, the twin features of modern society—a youth movement
and post-modernism—helped to raise questions about the Moon landings.
More than half the world’s population had been born since the last of the
Moon landings had taken place in December 1972. Consequently, they had not
lived through the excitement of the experience. this raises the specter of how
individuals view time and history. Mostly without even realizing it, individuals
tend to divide time into three general, inconsistent, and individualistic spheres
or cones of memory. the frst is a sphere of personal experience. events that
individuals participated in personally or that had salience to their individual
lives are the frst and most immediate sphere. these difer from person to
person, and include not only activities that the individual experienced frsthand
but events of great importance that took place in their memory. for instance,
there are colossal events that mark the time of our lives, and they hold great
resonance for those participating in them. virtually all americans know where
they were and what they were doing when they learned of the 9/11 attacks in
New york and Washington. the same is true for other dramatic incidents in
individual lives such as the Moon landings for those who remember them. It
is this memory of our individual and immediate experiences that govern most
people’s perspective on the past. roy rosenzweig and David thelen in their
study of popular uses of history in american life noted that far from americans
79. van bakel,“the Wrong Stuf,” Wired, p. 113.
80. a search on the term,“Moon hoax,” will yield no fewer than 5,000 sites containing information
of one type or another relating to this subject.