Re:"Rejected"? What would Turner say? (Score 2)

That's Fredrick Jackson Turner whose "Frontier Thesis" continues to be debated today. There are dozens of historians who refute his thesis that the frontier shaped American democracy. When he first wrote, he was trying to find an alternative to the then-prevalent "germ theory" which said, in effect, that American institutions were transplanted English/Germanic knock-offs. He and his colleagues (including future president Woodrow Wilson) couldn't stomach that idea. American democracy was new and different, Turner reasoned, and the frontier was the main reason why. If my thesis isn't entirely out in left field, it will be interesting to watch how Internet and geek values evolve in other countries. Part of the opposition to Turner's ideas stems from the development of other frontiers, including the Canadian and Australian, and the very different institutions which arose. The RCMP and railway settled the Canadian West, not pioneers as south of the 49th. Already in Canada we've seen the rise of a very different Internet culture. The CRTC has forborne the web from regulation, but they've reserved the right to do so in future. Two different countries, two different sets of institutions, same cyberspace. I see a lot of value in applying Turner's ideas to the evolution of the 'Net, but the frontier doesn't neccessarily have the same effect on all new societies.