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dependently of crises and cultural innovations: the break-up of old
cultural patterns and the invention of new ways of communicating,
behaving towards nature, speaking, etc .
Some are tempted to interpret this transition only in terms of
crisis; others, on the other hand, more concerned with organization,
struggle, or negotiation, want to separate social and political action
ftom cultural crisis very quickly. Two opposed errors that, between
them, allow no room for balance or a just solution. Crisis and con–
flict are connected as opposed but inseparable notions during this
period of transition , but conflict will not be able to play its central
role in society until the cultural crisis is past . And that is what makes
the transformation from crisis to criticism urgent. What is needed is
criticism of the old forms of culture which are artificially protected
by the ruling powers anxious to use every means to disorganize and
marginalize social opposition. And the criticism must also address
itself to the power structure's constant effort to break down the
awareness of conflict into a sense of crisis.
We have entered a period of great doubt. We have passed
beyond the certitudes of modernity, abundance, and power that
some of us have been opposing for a long time . Empires have lost
their legitimacy. The United States no longer has the right to speak
in the name of abundance and democracy; the Soviet Union is no
longer the bearer of the revolution and the liberation of the working
class. The social order is in crisis. But the crisis itself is unexpectedly
becoming the instrument of domination . The crisis of nation states ,
the rise of local, regional, or more generally "ascribed" identities
can be turned into an instrument to serve the interests of the multi–
national corporations. Fear of disorder, deviance, and extremism re–
inforces the guardians of established order. Dreams of equilibrium,
communal life , or return to nature do not worry the massive economic
and political systems, and such dreams dissipate the energy of social
protest in utopian passions. This destruction of the capacity for
action can spread to all of society, inhibiting creativity as well as pro–
test. How then can we get out of this state of crisis? By rediscovering
the justification, aim, and importance of social struggle . We have to
learn to believe in the future again, a future whose shape will not
