And human society is crumbling. The atrocities of the 11th September against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - symbols of corporate capitalism and military dominance - raised a question mark over the West's breathtaking project to bring all cultures throughout the world into a single economic and trade empire in which people, everywhere, are defined not by their culture but as consumers, customers and competitors. Society's essential services are being wrested from governments and handed to corporations whose motivation is profit. The global economy is precarious and growth, though impossible on a finite planet, is offered as the only prescription. Civil society is in conflict with institutions that put the rights of money above the rights of society. The policies of these global institutions have failed - the world is littered with collapsed and collapsing states, inequality has risen to obscene levels and commodity prices, on which the poor depend for income, have been driven down remorselessly so that half the world now lives on less than $2 a day. Anger against the West has exploded in Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Asymmetric warfare, with ultra-sophisticated hardware on one side and terror on the other, could bring unprecedented destruction. Our civilisation has taken a wrong turning - but we can choose a different path.
