ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the growing disparity between the rich and the poor in people's contemporary world and indicates the current human predicament. It offers a diagrammatic framework in which to examine the simplified contemporary setting of the human world in terms of the disparity-animosity spiral as well as the contemporary interactions of conflicting interests. The market fundamentalism seems to embody an extreme bias toward a particular value system of contemporary global capitalism. Big Market may include business leaders of multinational corporations, global financiers, mass-media, political leaders of Western societies and bureaucratic leaders of Western governments and international agencies, among others. The World of Sound Cultures represents a viable and constructive social amalgamation and integration, in which the pragmatism of Cultural enrichment and diversity matches the idealism of Comprehensive Human Development and Balanced Socioeconomic Development. The Age of Sustainable Development must replace the Modern Age to safeguard the well-being of humanity and the sustainability of the prospective global community.
