I love the twist that’s in play here as the United States’s government structure makes its own dents and distortions in the ‘progress’ it wants for everyone else:

When the United States beat the Soviet Union in the first race to the moon, it confirmed the view, to many, that capitalism rules and communism sucks. But the state that President Reagan called The Evil Empire learned its lesson and embraced capitalism wholeheartedly, in space at least, while NASA ossified into a monstrous, inefficient bureaucracy that would have done Khrushchev proud.

Strapped for cash after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Space Agency made money by having its cosmonauts shoot a Pepsi commercial on space station Mir. That worked out so well that the agency followed up with promos for Pizza Hut, The Lego Company, Popular Mechanics and Radio Shack on the International Space Station. It made even more money by flying the first tourists into space with the help of Space Adventures. Meanwhile NASA remains resolutely aloof from such crass commercialism.

Wired: Space Race.

And even if China and Russia are playing war games, and it is, admittedly, a little scary- especially if you’re into independance in Taiwan- I’m still going to stubbornly think it’s nice. Because maybe it does mean that super powers, baffled by all the new technology and previously unimaginable dangers, are preparing to listen to each other. Hopefully this open-mindedness will include an open-ness to new schemes for relationships with states that want a little self-determination.