Today's date:
 
Winter 2002
POST GLOBALIZATION
COMMENTARIES 2001-2007
MADE IN CHINA
THE TWO SOULS OF TURKEY
THE NEW GLOBAL CINEMA
MAKING GLOBALIZATION WORK
DE-GLOBALIZE THE JIHAD
THE THIRD WAVE'S THIRD WAY
PLANET OF SLUMS
THE GLOBAL IDEOLOGY
     OF FEAR

THE OTHER
POST-NATIONAL
    LITERATURE

COLLAPSE OR MASSIVE
    CHANGE?

THE RISE AND FALL OF
    AMERICA'S SOFT POWER

THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
THE HEADSCARF CONTROVERSY
SCULPTURE AND THE
     NEW SCIENCE

BIOTECH AND THE
     NEW BABEL

WAR THROUGH THE
     BACK DOOR

ANTIAMERICANISM
THE RISING SOFT POWER
     OF CHINA & INDIA

THE BUSH DOCTRINE
FAIRNESS IN A FRAGILE
    WORLD

AMERICA'S MIGHT
ISLAM IN THE 21ST CENTURY
ANTIGLOBOS
HOT PEACE
MODUS VIVENDI
LOOKING NORTH
FROM WELL HAVING TO
     WELL BEING

POST-HUMAN HISTORY
GLOBAPHOBIA
THE GLOBAL MIND
AFTER KOSOVO
FROM VIETNAM TO KOSOVO
DEGLOBALIZATION?
THE RISE OF THE MEDIA-
    INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

BOOM [NUCLEAR] AND
    [BUST] ECONOMIC IN ASIA

BEYOND CAPITALISM
ASIAN CRISIS
CHINA: THE ASIAN
     RENAISSANCE

SLOW IS BEAUTIFUL
ECLIPSE OF THE BIG
    PICTURE

AFTER THE END OF
    HISTORY

THE EAST IS RED AGAIN
HALF-A-HEGEMON
THIRD WAVE TERRORISM
HEIMAT
Fall 1987
Winter 1987
Spring 1986
Fall-Winter '84-'85
Spring 1984

BACK TO INDEX

The Future of Each Depends on the Good of All

John Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1986. He was the organizer of the statement by 100 Nobel laureates on the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes last December.

Toronto-The ferocity of the September attacks led Americans to believe that the attackers were insane. However, it came to be recognized that sustained terrorism has its causes and purposes. The question of rationality or irrationality is important, since what lies (to a large extent) within the realm of reason can (to a large extent) be countered by policies grounded in reason. Of course, threats are as much from states as from non-state groups, threats of mass-destruction as well as conventional threats. The dominant setting for conflict in each case is a world in which the rich and the poor live in full sight of one another. If in addition the poor are voiceless they may well be induced to speak through violence. Particularly so if their predicament is aggravated by the environmental carelessness of the rich. It is a peculiar folly, under these circumstances, for the rich to seek greater riches by selling weapons to the poor. Even without this, the prosperous grow ever more vulnerable. Advanced societies are complex and fragile. They operate efficiently by being open, not guarded. Like any complex mechanism, they are, therefore, vulnerable to the wrecker's ball.

Zhou Enlai allegedly remarked that it is too early to assess the consequences of the French Revolution. But it is not too early to identify its origins in the willful blindness of the French ruling class of the 18th century. Possessed of wealth and power, they offered only promises to the poor.

Unless we recognize that the future of each depends on the good of all, the coming years will bring escalating conflict. One need not be a rocket scientist to see that. However, the recognition that science has thrived on change could persuade us to behave more like rocket scientists. We might even come to realize that idealism is today the highest form of realism.