ABSTRACT
The desire for Utopia—a perfect society populated by perfect citizens—has excited intellectuals at least since Plato's Republic, and it has always been couched in some version of the language of universal love. Economist Jeremy Rifkin's book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis is a similar call for universal love. A healthy society furthers man's capacity to love his fellow men, to work creatively, to develop his reason and objectivity, to have a sense of self which is based on the experience of his own productive powers. Capitalism, democracy, and the harnessing of love to marriage emerged together with the historically crazy idea that people should be free to forge their own destinies, pursue their own happiness, and treat their fellow citizens as equals.
