By Noah Dawson

One point I often make in my writings and speeches is the economic and cultural importance of embracing Amarillo’s history. Today, I want to look at this topic from an angle I hadn’t previously discussed. I want to demonstrate why embracing western is important not only for Amarillo’s economic future, but for the future of the whole of humanity.

I recently finished reading Robert Zubrin’s new book, “The Case for Space.” Largely a follow up to his famous “The Case for Mars,” it not only lays out the groundwork for how humanity can turn outer space into home, but why it is necessary. One argument I found particularly striking, which is made in both “The Case for Space” and “The Case for Mars,” is the social and cultural benefit of the frontier. Doing so, he invokes the Turner thesis, an idea from the study of history that explains America’s fondness of liberty and individualism as a direct result of the necessities of frontier life. On modern day Earth, Zubrin argues, virtually every point on the surface is now closely connected. There are few significant frontiers on Earth, and the few that are left are still not immune to being connected to the internet, especially now that companies such as SpaceX are launching globally reaching satellite constellation-based internet services.

This has led, Zubrin argues, to a decreased importance of individualism in modern society and a stagnation in social progress. It’s easy to notice, with a continual rise in authoritarian politics globally from those on the left and right. Technologically, we’re also beginning to see some stagnation. In the past century, we went from inventing the airplane to stepping foot on the moon to struggling to reach low earth orbit. We went from inventing the computer, to creating personal computers, to creating portable laptops, to creating smartphones, to creating slightly different smartphones. But, if we must rely on the opening of new frontiers in space to reverse this stagnation and regression, is it even possible, given the state of stagnation and regression pushing us away from what is necessary to open these new frontiers?

I think it is possible, but only if we embrace the cultural spirit of western heritage. While it is true that advances in human spaceflight have largely stagnated, there are promising signs of advancement, though these advances aren’t coming from the usual places. Instead, they are coming from Silicon Valley, which has been at the forefront of another kind of frontier (one that is rapidly closing) and the wide-open landscapes of Texas and New Mexico, where the cultural values of the frontier are still alive.

It is in these places that companies like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX are pushing the envelope of what is physically possible regarding human spaceflight. In particular, it’s worth noting what SpaceX is doing in a small village at the southern tip of Texas. Down there, far from any major population centers, in an open field adjacent to the gulf coast, they are building the impossible: a fully reusable super heavy lift vehicle designed from the start to be used to colonize Mars. While the economic considerations (along with the happy geographic coincidence that it is a fairly optimal location for launching to orbit) are part of why SpaceX chose the site, the fact that it is in a relatively isolated part of Texas, a state that still embraces the spirit of frontier culture, might just be why they are seeing actual success.

So, to save humanity, humanity must open new frontiers, and to open new frontiers, it must embrace the cultural values of the old frontiers.