How should we as a society handle extremism?

Extremism is a growing threat to our society. People continue to try and get more and more extreme. But take a look at the underlying causes.

We live in an overpopulated world. There are a LOT of people on our planet. And every one of those seven billion people have a need for their lives to mean something. No one wants to die having accomplished nothing, or have lived a meaningless life. And yet because of the world's population it is becoming harder and harder to get noticed. Who wants to interview the guy who went from homeless to a millionaire in ten years when you can interview the guy who went from homeless to a billionaire in five? Who wants to interview the pastor who thinks America should ban Islam when you can interview the pastor who's burning Qur'ans out back while advocating a new holocaust for Muslims?

As such in this drive to get noticed, people are becoming more and more extreme.

Extremism isn't necessarily bad in itself. Someone must always occupy the extreme. If you take a knife and draw a line and say "anyone over the line is no longer part of my church/group/etc.," then whoever just inside the cut becomes the new extreme voice. Extremism provokes thoughts; it represents diversity in belief, which can be good.

It's just that in this drive to become more and more extreme, to push the boundaries further and further, we start to reach the place where the most prominent leaders of our political parties are not truly representative, but rather the most famous reps, the ones who get press--the ones at the far right and left wings. Instead of healthy examples of liberalism and conservatism, we get caricatures of both. And extremism drives people apart. And extremism can easily become intolerance.

We need people to believe what they believe, not to radicalize their own beliefs in hopes of getting noticed. We need healthy centrism in our world. We need cooperation and tolerance.

How can centrism survive the societal forces that are conspiring against it? How can we as a society handle extremism without it tearing society apart?