[RightWhale]

it was much more common to devote individual lives or entire segments of populations to accomplishing tasks

Some people still do that. It's not so common in our short-attention-span society, but there are dedicated individuals. Not talking about becoming Nerevarine in Morrowind, but about slogging through math and becoming a physicist or engineer. But there is no Pharoah to make people concentrate their efforts, it's an individual effort and the only reason we make progress as a group.

[discostu]

That kind of brings up something I think about from time to time. I think one of the big things missing from the American psyche right now is a grand project. For most of the 20th century (actually starting in the 19th, ending with the moon landing) America did all these really cool things really for no reason other than we could. We built huge bridges and tall buildings and carved our presidents' faces in a mountain all because we were America dammit. And if there's one thing missing from the modern era of this country it's that idea that we're America dammit. Then come the chicken and egg discussion: did we embark on these great projects because of national pride, or did we get that national pride because of these great projects? I think the only way to answer that question is to develop a great project, but what? If you could hammer through the appropriations and permits to build any grand structure, intending it to be the autograph of this generation on America ala the Golden Gate Bridge or Empire State Building or getting a man on the moon, what would it be?