The core justification for [Bush’s] space program’s objectives is embodied in the idea that America will “extend human presence across the solar system.” This could be the charter for a new ‘spacefaring’ civilization. The ones we have here on Earth are either colliding with each other, collapsing from within, or doing both at the same time. Western civilization is finding ever more creative ways to be decadent, while major parts of Islamic civilization bubble over with envy, rage and hate. China, a civilization unto itself, has for the moment integrated a capitalistic bubble economy within a one-party communist political system, which probably will not last for long.