ABSTRACT
There was a period in our recent history, just after the end of the Second World War, in which a sense of progress, liberalisation, democratisation, and happiness was felt. For those who had lived through the horrors of the war, the need for peace and stability led them to hope that the past experience had taught a valuable lesson. This was that there would be no more confl icts, that society would get back onto the path of progress, despite the ordinary diffi culties of reconstruction, the obstacles and the misunderstandings: we looked to the future. As Eric J. Hobsbawm recalls, it was the period in which the English police force patrolled unarmed and social security seemed guaranteed forevermore. 1 It only took a couple of decades, just the time of a generational change, for the general outlook to change, and it changed radically.
