Create West Virginia

McKinsey & Company, the high-end management consulting firm, has published an article entitled "Asia and the Elements of Innovation." In it, author Eric Drexler outlines his view on the foundational elements required for a society to become a world-class center of technological innovation:

• drive—a culture that supports change and hungers for it
• human capital—the personal abilities that make world-class technology possible
• a capacity for mobilization—a society’s ability to pursue ambitious new goals

I thought this quote was quite interesting: 

Cultures can shift between complacency and drive on a generational time scale. Where one generation struggles from poverty to prosperity, the next often treats prosperity as a natural part of life. Where one generation upholds a rigid social architecture, the next may be scrabbling in rubble and building anew. Japan and most Western societies have been stable and prosperous throughout the adult lives of their leaders.

And this should make us all shudder at where the U.S. and West Virginia are in the talent development race: 

Cultures differ radically in their attitudes toward education. In the rising societies of Asia, education is a top priority, far above, for example, sports. During national exam season, when students study for the test that will determine their future in higher education, I found that Indian newspapers carry science and mathematics quizzes that would stump most US college graduates... In Chinese societies, scholarly students have a status among their peers like that of athletes in the United States and run little risk of being marginalized, ridiculed, or beaten. In India, I found that students chase after the autographs, not of entertainers, but of scientists.

What do you think? What would help West Virginia develop a culture that "supports and hungers for change"? What would motivate us to rally around ambitious new goals vs. embracing complacency? Are we victim to the generational cycles of time and circumstance, or can we do something now to spark a round of amazing innovation in our state?