The Future and its Foes

How Anxious Thinking Immobilizes German Society

By Dirk Maxeiner und Michael Miersch

Eichborn Verlag,
Frankfurt am Main 2002
ISBN 3-8218-3912-0
250 pages
19,90 Euro

Summary

All progress in history, all technical and social improvments, were bought about by people who believed in the future. But instead of looking ahead, the German mentali-ty tends to to idealize the past. Weird coalitions are forming: parties of the right are opposing atomic energy, left wing politicians are complaining about the loss of con-servative values, green groups and catholic cardinals are preaching out against ge-netic research. The radical left and the neonazis are using the same slogans to de-nounce globalisation. Debates about the future no longer adhere to traditional right/left thinking. Whether immigration, genetical enginiering or employment policies: Society is re-forming itself. Two separate factions are evolving from this general cha-os: one progress orientated, and the other over-anxious about the future.

"The Future and its Foes" explains the new political formations and shows who be-longs to which group. This book describes the damage done by pessimists of the right and the left who both block technical progress and hinder political reforms which Germany urgently needs. It is also an appeal for utilizing the chances that science and technology offer us.