ABSTRACT
We live in an age burdened by an epidemic of anxiety and addiction placed on our path toward destruction. Reactionary political and social ideologies depend on fear and anger while channeling wrath as worship at the twin altars of violence and power. Environmental pollution represents incontrovertible evidence of these social and economic injustices that threaten life as we know it. By every measure of wealth distribution, inequality is rising almost everywhere in the world, including the United States with 15,300,000 millionaires—the most of any country in the world—along with the so-called liberal democracies of Scandinavia and Western Europe. Since 1980, the global top one percent has captured twice as much growth as the bottom half. The gap between the richest and poorest people is larger than ever, and it is growing. Along with the proliferation of anti-science among politicians and corporate leaders, we are witnessing the cynical use of “alternative facts” as a parody and mockery of the fruits of critical thinking. Indeed, critical thinking often leads one to the conclusion that the “truth” is difficult to determine amid a host of competing claims to what it is, what it means, and how it impacts people, groups, and whole societies.
