Dark times on Earth trigger my emotions about Artemis launch

By David McElroy · April 1, 2026

As the minutes and seconds ticked down toward the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission Wednesday evening, I felt unexpectedly emotional.

I wasn’t sure why I felt like crying. All I knew was that what I was watching was triggering the same sorts of feelings I used to have as a small child watching Apollo rockets launch missions which finally reached the moon.

And then it hit me.

As a child watching humans reach toward space, I was full of optimism about the future. We were breaking free of the confines of this planet. Humans were going to leave their known world — once again — and try to build something new elsewhere.

We were reaching for a new start. We were going to bring Star Trek to life.

And as I watched the countdown to the launch of Artemis II today — with tears in my eyes — I realized why it was so emotional to watch this.

All of my fears and frustrations and anger about our society today faded just slightly. I was emotional to feel just a tiny bit of the optimism and hope that I felt as a child.

Maybe — just maybe — we might still overcome the darkest parts of what we’re doing to ourselves. Maybe we could still overcome all the challenges we face.

Maybe I could feel hope again for the future of humanity.

The launch was less than half an hour ago. Plenty could still go wrong. I’m not even certain that this mission — to spend days orbiting the moon, but not landing — is even worthwhile.

But symbolically, it meant something to me.

In the rush of emotions I felt after the rocket safely launched four people into space, I had all sorts of images from my past. Some were from Apollo missions. Skylab. The space shuttle. Some were images from classic science fiction books in which space travel and exploration were just common and normal.

I know that launching one very expensive rocket toward the moon doesn’t mean all those other things have come true. But it makes me feel something which goes beyond rational conclusions.

In this moment, I’m not worried about a dysfunctional culture. I’m not worried about politicians leading us into financial ruin or pointless wars or social collapse.

Right now, I’m a 6-year-old boy who’s optimistic that humans can once again explore new worlds and build new civilizations.

I hadn’t realized until this moment how desperate I’ve been to feel this sort of hope once again.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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