The earliest stirrings of modern industrial society can be
traced back to some 6,000 years ago, to the emergence of the
first cities, the emergence of agriculture and storage of food
surpluses in the Near East. A bit later, analytic and linguistic
keys to the forward march of civilization found critical
refinement in Aristotle’s syllogistic logic and the founding of
the sciences. The current trajectory of the West burst into full
self-consciousness during the period of European Enlightenment,
with the birth of rationalism and the elaboration of the modern
scientific method. These, in turn, eventually gave rise to the
industrialization, hyper-specialization, technological
innovation and increasing commodification of just about
everything that we are witnessing today. With Europe and, more
recently, America leading the way, the path charted and
engineered by Western civilization spawned a mindset that is
rapidly overtaking the globe, socially, economically, and
culturally. This ascendancy has unleashed a domina