by Ernest Erber

About the author: Ernest Erber, a scholar of social change theory, is a professional planner specializing in national and international economic planning. He has been a writer, educator, and organizer for democratic socialist groups for many years.

The current proliferation of civil strife of every conceivable type throughout the world seems to be accentuated by a barbaric cruelty and disregard of human life that surpasses anything experienced since the Holocaust. To be informed of organized and politically motivated mass rape; of the cold-blooded slashing of throats of prisoners; of wanton and repeated shelling of civilian populations in their homes, suggests a form of mega-madness that defies clear comprehension, even with the most skillful use of the analytic tools that are customary to historical and/or socio-political investigation.

But if we are to adhere to a belief in rationalism and if...