motto would be bellum omnium contra omnes. We need only listen to the sound of the rising chorus of organized violence in American society, and in the rest of the world, to verify the accuracy of Sorokin's forecast for our time. Words which previously were meaningful, such as "freedom," would gradually lose their definition and become mere fiction, honored in word but not in deed, Sorokin prophesied, and "inalienable rights would be alienated." Constitutions would be abolished, "or used only as beautiful screens for an unadulterated coercion." Today we people of the future age are seeing our constitutions and legal systems being transformed into just such hollow shells, exactly as Sorokin said they would. Sorokin also saw only bad things ahead for the family, as an institution and as the fundamental building block of society. The sacredness of the family unit, of husband, wife, and children, would continue to disintegrate, Sorokin predicted. Genuine differences between marriage, as it has always been understood, and illicit sexual relationships would disappear. Children would be separated from their parents at an earlier and earlier age. These trends would continue to accelerate until, as he remarks, "the family becomes a mere incidental cohabitation of male and female while the home will become a mere overnight parking place mainly for sex-relationship." We may judge for ourselves how accurately Sorokin saw the future of the family. Is there any distinction today between marriage and illicit relationships? (Even Sorokin, writing in the 1930s, never imagined same-sex "marriages," which, though not yet sanctioned by law, are yet becoming prevalent and may soon receive legal sanction in some government jurisdictions.) For a majority of Americans, by the same token, does the main responsibility for rearing the children of the 1990s rest with mothers and fathers, day-care centers, or government bureaucrats? Sorokin wrote in the 1930s that European culture, as a separate entity, would soon be overwhelmed and replaced by a grotesque collage of bits and pieces of every culture on earth. Culturally speaking, our society, he thought, would become a bazaar, like those of Cairo, old Damascus, or Calcutta, with everything and anything tossed into the muddled heap. Though there were fewer hints of these things in the 1930s, Sorokin saw the future with clarity. Under the impact of
motto would be bellum omnium contra omnes. We need only listen to the sound of the rising chorus of organized violence in American society, and in the rest of the world, to verify the accuracy of Sorokin's forecast for our time. Words which previously were meaningful, such as "freedom," would gradually lose their definition and become mere fiction, honored in word but not in deed, Sorokin prophesied, and "inalienable rights would be alienated." Constitutions would be abolished, "or used only as beautiful screens for an unadulterated coercion." Today we people of the future age are seeing our constitutions and legal systems being transformed into just such hollow shells, exactly as Sorokin said they would. Sorokin also saw only bad things ahead for the family, as an institution and as the fundamental building block of society. The sacredness of the family unit, of husband, wife, and children, would continue to disintegrate, Sorokin predicted. Genuine differences between marriage, as it has always been understood, and illicit sexual relationships would disappear. Children would be separated from their parents at an earlier and earlier age. These trends would continue to accelerate until, as he remarks, "the family becomes a mere incidental cohabitation of male and female while the home will become a mere overnight parking place mainly for sex-relationship." We may judge for ourselves how accurately Sorokin saw the future of the family. Is there any distinction today between marriage and illicit relationships? (Even Sorokin, writing in the 1930s, never imagined same-sex "marriages," which, though not yet sanctioned by law, are yet becoming prevalent and may soon receive legal sanction in some government jurisdictions.) For a majority of Americans, by the same token, does the main responsibility for rearing the children of the 1990s rest with mothers and fathers, day-care centers, or government bureaucrats? Sorokin wrote in the 1930s that European culture, as a separate entity, would soon be overwhelmed and replaced by a grotesque collage of bits and pieces of every culture on earth. Culturally speaking, our society, he thought, would become a bazaar, like those of Cairo, old Damascus, or Calcutta, with everything and anything tossed into the muddled heap. Though there were fewer hints of these things in the 1930s, Sorokin saw the future with clarity. Under the impact of