ABSTRACT
Popular commentators seeking to define the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, often rely on the familiar Chinese saying, ‘may you live in interesting times’ (which lamented those who had the misfortune of living in such an era) to describe the perils of the contemporary moment. Those of us living in modern society at the end of the millennium could well be characterised instead as doomed to live in ‘insecure times’. Insecurity has seeped in to the fabric of our lives, and has become the template of our daily lived experience and the nightmare vision of our dreams and expectations.
