Where Hope Lives

© Laurence B. Winn

May 1, 2000

Challenge, isolation, youth and individualism are fundamental characteristics of human territorial frontiers. In the continuing process of fixing ideas in frontier theory, a functional definition of a frontier is the most essential element. It is also the most difficult, because people tend to confuse the idea of a frontier with that of a space that is merely empty of human habitation.

Siberia is empty. The bottom of the ocean is empty. Antarctica is empty. None of these are, or could become, viable frontiers. They all fail by one or more of the following criteria.

The pages of a technical journal for lubrication engineers is not the most plausible place to seek insights into cultural anthropology, yet it is where Dr. Shirley Schwartz, a senior staff research scientist at General Motors, shares an intriguing link between ancient Alaskan tribes and creative productivity in modern engineering. It seems that the Tlingit (sounds like "klink it") were among the most technologically advanced of the early North American peoples. Schwartz attributes their advanced state to harsh living conditions that motivated the development of technology, especially that of building ocean-going boats. The Tlingit themselves believe, according to Schwartz, that technology and creativity flourished with them because of their freedom from the kind of raiding, warfare and forced migration experienced elsewhere in North America. Their freedom from attack was the result of isolation, isolation provided by rugged mountain ranges on three sides and the sea on the fourth.

The story has relevance to business administration via an analogy with corporate culture. Firms that experience restructuring, downsizing and relocation, the business equivalents of raiding, warfare and forced migration, rate a "-1" for enablers on Schwartz's "creative productivity" scale. Firms without a driving need to meet tough technical challenges rate a "-1" for motivation. Schwartz proposes the Tlingit Scale as a new tool for investors. Probably without realizing it, she has demonstrated an application of frontier theory to twenty-first century speculation. With that digression, we move on.

In "A Shared Vision in Space", Allan Lee, Suite101's contributing editor for Broadcasting, calls the Apollo flights to the moon and subsequent crewed space missions "perhaps one of the few things we watch on TV that's truly worthy". He concludes by asking, "Have we lost the capacity to go out into space, not for entertainment, but because it is a challenge?" Lee and Schwarz are on he same wavelength. Challenge, the key to economic vitality, is as well a primary ingredient in our definition of a frontier.

Challenge and isolation are but two of the chief features of frontiers. Emphasis on the individual .... individual wealth, individual interpretation of religious texts and the development of the individual through education ... is another hallmark of the territorial frontier.

Barbara Nicholson, contributing editor for Antiques and Collectibles, cites, in "A Brief History of Colonial America's Society & Culture", the availability of "virgin land" as a factor enabling the evolution of political freedom, religious toleration and the cultivation of the individual on the American frontier. She tells us that immigrants to frontier America "were often the disenchanted and dissatisfied - farmers without prospect of inheritance, younger sons of wealthy merchants, religious outcasts, seekers of adventure." People, in short, who are most likely to be young and strongly individualistic. The same would be expected of any frontier.

By the above arguments, we have established that frontiers have the following characteristics in common:

* They are empty of human habitation. At worst, they are sparsely populated by essentially defenseless populations that can be dehumanized by applying the label "savage". (Note: The last sentence is both a condemnation of the American enterprise on moral grounds and a warning for the future that it does not pay to neglect one's defenses, or to stay home too much.)

* Frontiers have resources worth exploiting, resources without proprietors. These can include arable land, mineral wealth, abundant wildlife, energy sources, low temperature, high vacuum, weightlessness, strategic position or any item of value. It depends, in part, on the state of technology of the pioneers what constitutes a resource.

* Challenge is essential. A complete absence of stress is antithetical to growth and discovery. A paradise is instantly disqualified. A barren wasteland is also disqualified. The challenge must be great, but not impossible given the current state of technology.

* Isolation automatically conveys freedom from raiding, warfare and forced migration. A reasonable benchmark is three days of travel time, roughly what separated Europe from America at the turn of the last century. Otherwise, as aerospace expert, entrepreneur and space activist Dr. Robert Zubrin likes to say, "the cops are too close". If the cops had been much closer than they were in 1776, he would argue, there would be no United States.

* On a frontier, the individual matters. That is not to say that people don't work together. They do, but they cooperate for individual gain, and the association lasts only as long as it enhances the potential for individual gain. Misfits must be free to escape into the wilderness, or else mayhem ensues. There is a psychological dimension here as well. As with the rodents in Dr. John Calhoun's experiments, individuals so damaged by their previous environment that they are incapable of forming a new social structure will not be able to take advantage of a frontier.

* Frontiers must have a youthful demographic. Youth has the most to gain from pioneering, but, more importantly, it has the tools for the job. Reproduction is part of that job. An isolated colony of old people would die out.

When we consider the problems of overpopulation, pollution, climate change and the disintegration of society, it is clear that no place on this planet qualifies as a frontier anymore. If there is to be a chance for the future, then we must find it above the sky. Up is where hope lives.