The supersonic space-edge jump by Felix Baumgartner was an exciting diversion, but beyond that, the heavily sponsored spectacle signified just about nothing.

Right?

Not so, insists Chris Taylor in a post at the digitally focused website Mashable. He writes:

Here, in the midst of our safety-obsessed, earthbound, jaded culture, was a moment that took us out of ourselves, reminding at least eight million viewers who watched live (and millions more who caught it later) what it feels like to push the boundaries of the possible.

Pay no attention to the naysayers. This was just as giant a leap as it felt. It reminded us that making a taller iPhone does not have to be the ultimate ambition of the technically minded. We can dare to look up from our Star Trek-inspired smartphones, gaze at the heavens, and dream of doing things that seem completely ridiculous.

In a blog post at al-Jazeera, space-science journalist Ian O’Neill asked “what was the point of all this?”

His answer:

We need people like Felix Baumgartner who do incredibly brave, yet sometimes baffling, feats of historical significance. Sure, science was done by the Stratos team, and the data will aid future technologies for high-altitude bale-outs for pilots and astronauts’ space suits, but the impact of seeing one human doing something bold not only inspires, it ignites a passion that can drive entire societies. For just a few minutes on Sunday morning, millions of people forgot their routine and ignored the chaos of the world to watch one man make history …

The increasingly “risk averse” nature of modern society often views such events as a waste of time, but, to me, they are an embodiment of mankind’s basic desire to, despite the risk, do great things.

But perhaps the most ambitious interpretation of the space-jump comes at New Europe, where Andy Carling calls the feat “an inspirational piece of Austrian performance art”, an “artistic endeavour [that] has many layers of meaning”.

Placing – one assumes – his tongue in his cheek, Carling writes:

Felix Baumgartner uses daredevil stunts to make breathtaking and poignant political performance art, of which his latest is, perhaps his greatest work of art, his sophisticated yet playful comment on the Eurozone crisis …

By planning to make a parachute jump from 120,000 feet, he will literally ‘bail out’ from a record height and quickly enter a stage know as ‘free fall’ where he hopes (for purely artistic reasons) to break the sound barrier, thus vividly demonstrating the perils of austerity …

In addition, in a witty play on European summits, the Austrian albatross has built up the excitement and then postponed a series of deadlines for the jump, leaving media pundits hanging around for hour after painful hour with nothing to report. This cleverly mimics the anticipation and disappointment felt by many as they witness the inconclusive summits leading to yet another inconclusive summit …

This endeavour can be seen as a daredevil stunt or as a reckless challenge to natural forces, but is, as we can see, a very sophisticated artistic critique of the troubled Eurozone. As Europeans struggle to comprehend the enormity of the financial challenges and the inadequacy of the response so far, we can turn to cutting edge artists to enhance our understanding of our world.

Meanwhile SB Nation has discovered a secret audio recording …