ABSTRACT
The collapse of communist states, the internationalization of capitalist markets, the migration of former colonials to the centers of declining empires, the expansion of tourism, the globalization of communication media, the acceleration of speed in military actions and political movements – these contemporary compressions of time and complications of territorial space squeeze the old idols of the western state. The universal Christian god, the nation-state, universal reason, the primacy of the individual, separation of church and state, the distinction between private and public, the autonomous self, the sedimented traditions of a unified people: these no longer converge and clash so predictably on the old checkerboard of radical, liberal and conservative possibilities.
