Italy didn’t exist until the 19th century. Are you saying the whole italian peninsula was a lost cause? Did you forget about the Renaissance?

I think that’s in part due to nepotism. It seems like everyone who’s successfully in entertainment is the child or grandchild of someone else who was successful in entertainment. The same is true for the music industry and its starting to become true in the AAA gaming industry.

When people start to get those jobs because of their family connections rather than their ability everything goes downhill. The most obvious example outside of entertainment is politics.

We can, and likely will do better in space. Despite humanities failing most people still care about the human race enough that they want the long term survival of the species. The only way to ensure that is expansion into space colonies.

That doesn’t mean we should give up on earth nor does it mean we should sacrifice climate health for the betterment of space travel.