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individual is seen as impossible in isolation but realizable only when society as a whole provides adequate means of life for all of its members. The society we envisage would be both tolerant and demanding, culturally aware and socially conscious, politically active and economically egalitarian, including the undeniable dynamism of capitalism with the disciplines of an intellectual meritocracy, the protections of socialism, and mandates for citizens to exercise regularly their political and social responsi- bilities. It would also be one that has abandoned the hubris of the age of oil, of industrialism, of moder-nity itself, for a true post-modernity, beyond the delusions of a fatuous academy and the latest epigones of Nietzsche. I am under no illusions regarding the difficulty of transforming our culture in this 
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direction or that this culture and its defenders would take lightly a critique, to say nothing of subversion, of some of their most cherished idols, however destructive they may be of themselves or their world; but the pursuit of these idols endangers what remains of value in our civilization, to say nothing of many of the life forms with whom we share the difficult, often niggardly, but still habitable planet we call the earth. All efforts toward change must, of course, begin with a frank recognition of the circum- stances that require change and of their complexity, depth, even at times intractability; with a clear-eyed diagnosis of the illness to be treated and the dangers we face -- including economic overextension, political paralysis, and environmental collapse. Only after that can there  |
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