No More Frontiers - Cause for Anxiety

I sometimes think many of the issues we are facing today in the world are because we don't have any escape valves. While we have the digital frontier that is a convenient place for a shared bitchfest, there's really nowhere you can go to get away from things and start anew.

Take America. It was a country founded by and large by people looking to get away from somewhere else because they weren't happy. You could go west and live on your own. It was hard, was definitely risky, but it was an opportunity and was a place where there was something different. Now, that just isn't the case. You can make money and be a capitalist, but the all pervasive law has caught up and there's no outlet for people who want individual expression.

I couldn't help but be amazed at all the different micro-societies that dotted the history of this nation, and when I looked at America, I liked how many visions there were for what the future could be. But now, it seems like there are fewer and fewer, and wherever you go, the uniformity of rules is being slowly but surely imposed. I don't even think it is a matter of draconian laws, but traditions that become embedded so fully that you stop questioning them, stop questioning everything.

Anyway, rather than looking to change the system, I wish there was a place to escape and set up new rules. Maybe one day people will reach space at an economically viable level, and there'll be that place to go. But until then, we're all stuck living in the society that is one size fits all. No more frontiers to live, except in our imagination as the real world is stuck in neutral.

Great post!

The skills that it takes to succeede are seldom the ones it takes to preserve success. America was good at the first, but proving not so good at the second.

reply to post by cassandranova


YOU HAVE LOCATED THE (MISSING) MAJOR CAUSE OF MY CONSTANT, EXISTENTIAL CONCERN. THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO. THANKYOU!

Thinking more about this thread, it seems like a "frontier" is defined by the presence of the unknown.

Not much unknown left in the age of google earth....

I wonder when the last undiscovered geographical location was discovered, and at exactly which moment the world map became complete. At that moment, the true concept of "frontier" was lost forever. It would be interesting to learn exactly when that was on planet earth...anyone know?

This is such a strange concept that I'm having trouble grasping it. I'm not sure you realize the financial sink that was required to 'discover' and populate America, or the wars that followed to imperialistically take it from the indigenous population of native Americans. You say that the major problem, for you I assume, is that there are no more 'frontiers' and thus, nowhere left to go.

In reality, there is plenty of land still not habitable, reachable, and suppliable on this planet. There are many environments that we have not yet gured out how to live in, at least sustainably. However, that was said about much of the world today at some point or another. It is no easy task to uproot from one country and travel to another unknown land and start a whole country. There is plenty of frontier left on the face of this planet, and subsurface terrain is still 100% uninhabited just underneath the ocean surface. There is also the sky, for which it would be advised to colonize as well through either skyscraper cities or floating cities. Whichever seems to be more plausible at the time.

In the end, there is much of this planet left free and clear, not to mention the moon and Mars which was recently discovered to have possible liquid water, known to have frozen water, and possibly liquid water seeps on the surface.

Hope that brightens your day.

reply to post by Partygirl


First satellite imagery I'd say.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


Yes but the OP is alluding the the fact that we cannot travel to anywhere humanly conceivable, erect a culture based on our (my) own values and be free, the world is too small now.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


The concept of the "lost frontier" is a particularly American concept, and it doesn't have anything to do with literal land avalable or what injustices might have been done to who in the past.

It's a shift in consciousness, mentality.

The frontier was, in the American mind, always more than physical space. It was the promise of endless progress, which is not only the American Dream but the final, most trumphant arc of the Western Dream, so to speak.

Whem people speak of a lost frontier they are speaking of a lost mentality, a lost consciousness, a lost way of life. If you didn't grow up in the American West (even a lot of folks from Back East don't get it), you might not be able to grasp the nuance.

No talk of losing the frontier can be complete without studying this man some. He wrote the book on it.

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by posthuman
reply to post by sbctinfantry

 

Yes but the OP is alluding the the fact that we cannot travel to anywhere humanly conceivable, erect a culture based on our (my) own values and be free, the world is too small now.

You all realize the earth was flat at some point, the american continent didn't exist on a map and many people died in order to explore it, right?

I mean, you did study history right?

I wonder if geography was a topic as well. How small is the world? Mine seems to be getting larger and larger. There are places I have been that have seen very little outside influence.

I can't imagine why anyone would think that the next colony that is formed will be independent. Even if it isn't, if it is far enough out of the grasp of the megacontrollers, it will declare independence.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


Where?

I'm challenging you on this.

Originally posted by kro32
reply to post by sbctinfantry

 

Where?

I'm challenging you on this.

Speak to your local recruiter.

us.army.mil

reply to post by sbctinfantry


My local recruiter didn't post it you did.

I'm very curious where this place is that a new civilization could form up unimpeded by the rest of the world.

Originally posted by kro32
reply to post by sbctinfantry

 

My local recruiter didn't post it you did.

I'm very curious where this place is that a new civilization could form up unimpeded by the rest of the world.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize the formation of the contemporary American civilization, the greatest on the planet, was unimpeded by disease, kings, natives, leftover construction, and so on. As a matter of fact, the tyranny chased the American settlers to their shores.

By your definition, no civilization has formed up unimpeded by the rest of the world. The only reason they are allowed to flourish ever is by the sword, pen or because it's just too hard to punish the colonists from the central ruling authority.

So, you're arguing arbitrary semantics.

Anyway, if you want to really see some nation building, join the military.