Originally Posted by Doodler

That was simply a tag applied to a mentality that had been active in the New World since before there were Americans. European colonials of various stripes were much worse than we ever were. Secondly, we're leading this expansion, so if you don't like the Americentric name, get Europe off its duff and turn the ESA into a space program with a manned element. Pretty pictures and reams of data are fascinating and educational, but they're the exploratory equivalent of spinning the wheels.

Now that the rant it done, lets answer this question: Why is space exploration our destiny? The short version is, humans are at their worst when they fail to expand. Rome's major degeneration occurred in the years following the end of its expansion. Some of the darkest days of US history followed in the wake of hitting the Pacific. We build to the limits of our available lebensraum, then the inevitable decay sets in due to disinterest. Look at US cities, built to the hilt, and becoming ever expanding realms of urban sprawl with expansion strictly because of disinterest in investment in already urbanized areas where decay has set in. The expense of building over old areas is a constant thorn in the side of new investment. Not that this is the best mindset to have, but its the mindset in play, so its what we've got to work with. You do not change the course of civilization, you simply guide it along the path of least devastation, if you can. Expanding offworld, as it becomes more practical, could offer an avenue of less damaging expansion to the rather atavistic business community. Planetside governments can convince themselves of their relevance when this starts happening, but the day the critical threshold is crossed in terms of human survival in space, new governments will form, and a new frontier in human expansion will be opened, and maybe, just maybe, this planet might get a little relief from its most precocious offspring. We're trashing the cradle, its time to get out of it.