I'm not holding the astronaut responsible for anything. It's the reverse: because the astronaut had to work within the system to succeed, his success is not his personal success, it's the system's success. Saying "it doesn't matter which astronaut won" is saying "it doesn't matter which system won". When one system starved up to 7.5 million people to death and another didn't, which system won is not a petty issue.
(You could, however, argue that "first man on Mars" and "second man on Mars" are very similar achievements and that one is so marginally close to the other the difference between the two is petty. But I don't think that's what most people who express this kind of pettiness sentiment mean.)
I see your point; I think that saying "the system won", though, is an easy story to tell that doesn't reflect what actually happens very well. I don't see how the starving-people-to-death part of the system and the space-race part are sufficiently connected that the space-race part winning helps the starving-people-to-death part.
(If you disagree about this prediction, I will be unhappy to discuss it further but happy to say "okay, this is the underlying fact on which we disagree, let's stop there". Is this the underlying fact on which w...
Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are: