ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on contemporary clash in civilization. A clash in civilization is a conflict between life as it is and life as it might be lived. It is the process by which one epic narrative of Western civilization is transformed into another. In each instance the outcome of the clash was an extraordinary transformation in the West's understanding of the possibilities for living, working, fighting and playing. Western civilization is today confronted with just such a combination. It is a contemporary clash in civilization and it is every bit as stunning and extensive as was the change from classical to medieval and from medieval to modern life. Development of an energy system within an epoch traces a familiar path. The first phase is experimental or entrepreneurial in character. At some point an exceptionally fertile model and its creative uses, a paradigm, emerges and points the way toward an explosive 'take off' ending the entrepreneurial phase.
