wretchard @ 12: “Perhaps technology will advance sufficiently in the 21st century to allow people, tired of the bickering and squabbling, to seek their freedom and fortune amid the moons of Titan or prospect the asteroid belt. …With any luck, the smarter kids may eventually turn their back on the stupidity of politics and head outward to do cool things.”

The last century was the first one in human history where there was not a frontier to release the tensions of various societies. The frontiersmen were the ones who would be less able to stand the strictures of supposedly civilized existence and would strike out to find new spaces to breathe free. The 1800′s had the American frontier. That space was viewed as open, rightly or wrongly. It could absorb the excess steam of ‘civilization’. The 60′s saying, “The meek shall inherit the Earth. The rest of us will go to the stars.” may have some mileage to it.