Man on the Moon

Neil Armstrong’s death a few days ago is not as seminal as when he set foot on the Moon, but is the moment when all his yesterdays will be all that now comprises him and when he definitely passes into history, to be the only man remembered by name by the masses a thousand years from now, as J.G. Ballard had it.

He has been subject to many conspiracy theories – that he never went to the Moon, that he messed up his opening words – that it was natural for him to retreat from public view, even moving town when an ingénue barber’s assistant starting gossiping about the visit of a famous client.  Unlike Ed ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, he never felt the need to compensate for a perceived inferiority, at being second, for he was first and nothing could take that away.

There will always be those who believe Apollo 11 and all subsequent Moon missions were filmed on a studio set (to the extent that the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever referenced and played up to these musings).  The Soviets could hardly believe it either as their Moon capsule resembled some Jules Verne-steam powered contraption and that the USA, with its ideology of individualism and liberty, would risk the lives of its astronauts.  But with surely at least a thousand Eastern Bloc telescopes trained on the Moon, they must have been satisfied that the Americans had indeed reached the Moon, for they would never have given up the pursuit otherwise.

In today’s celebrity-obsessed age, it is refreshing to have someone worth more than all the others currently enjoying their 15 minutes of fame and yet chose to keep himself to himself.  And that is an attribute as powerful as setting foot on another terrestrial body – a testament to the particular human spirit of this man.