ABSTRACT
Assuming that modern societies are characterised by the fact that they can only reproduce their institutional structures dynamically, i.e. in an escalatory mode of growth, acceleration and innovation. This chapter explores in this contribution the connection between this structural feature and the dominant conception of the good life that accompanies it. It identifies two corresponding cultural 'imperatives for growth' that provide the hamster-wheel of modern social life with motivational energy, or, put differently, that translate the structural requirement of growth, acceleration and innovation into a strategic necessity in search for the good life. The chapter shows why this conception necessarily fails in a twofold way: It leads to the destruction rather than the control of nature – and to alienation rather than appropriation of the world. It presents an alternative conception of the good life that might provide a cultural and motivational lever to counter those imperatives and collectively find a way out of the late-modern predicament.
