I always think of how the ultra-wealthy see themselves as the new Columbus, conquistadors, and East India Companies. It was, as it is then, a combination of wanting to escape (back then it was bubonic plague and wars of religion), wanting to conquer (then as now, the high seas, then as now "new worlds", then as now the common or foreign people they see as "less than"), and wanting to pioneer to insure their own financial suplus, and ensure "culture" is what spreads, endures, and ends all others.

(I haven't read Rushkoff's book yet--and I will--but I've got to assume he makes at least passing mention of that parallel.)