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Crisis~
the
'8os
by
Michael A. Snyder
Few understand the astounding cause of the paradox facing the West today.
M
AN
has
harnessed
the power
of the atom. He
hurls probes to
photog r aph and
map distant plan–
ets and now pre–
pares to mine the
ocean floor.
Yet humans live
with vermin in major
inner-city areas. Vio–
lent crime soars in
once quiet neighbor–
hoods . And men and
women wonder aloud
about their future in
a world br istl ing
with nuclear weapon–
ry.
Why this paradox?
Suppose you were to
draw a graph of man's
social and material
progress over the last
near 6,000 years.
There would be two
lines, one representing
social development and
the other technological
progress. Each would
rise slightly throughout the
grap·h-t-hat is, • until ·the lines
reached the period of the last few
June/ J uly 1982
noting technological
progress would sud–
denly become near ver–
tical, until it finally
disappeared off the top
of the chart!
The paradox of war,
vio lence, cr ime and
poverty contrasts with
man 's scientific and
material achievements.
Why?
[sn't it time we
understood the root
cause of this paradox?
And the cure?
Lookin g for Answer s
The Western world
today faces complex
difficulties not even
dreamed of at the
beginning of this cen–
tury.
People like having
everythi.ng done for
them. Push-button
convenience appliances
line counters of kitch-
ens in Europe, North
America, Australia, Ja-
pan and a few other
areas of the industrial–
ized world. Housewives
regularly bombard
decades. There, the line repre- meats and otber dishes with
senting social development would ·.- microwave radiation. Factories .uti.,..,, .......
hardly change, while the line lize robots to perform dangerous
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