ABSTRACT
Crisis of civilization was the final diagnosis of a good many of the less committed historians, but there is something equivocal about the idea itself. By two roundabout routes, social criticism is threatening, however, to turn into a crisis of civilization. These routes are: rejection of inbuilt economic constraints and rejection of the imperatives of collective action. The civilization of self-centered enjoyment condemns itself to death when it loses interest in the future. To conclude our analysis: there are two major explanations for the simultaneity of the apparently incompatible phenomena of license and revolt, namely, Tocqueville's Law and the quasi-oppressive character of modern civilization itself. And it may be that many people find it easier to put up with a traditional leader than with an authority which professes to be a "simple necessity" or which justifies itself by a rationality which eludes the majority.
