Introduction

There are certain moments in life which are milestones, when we are compelled to regard the past and present with an eagle eye in order to become aware of our true position. Even world history is inclined to looking back this way in order to understand itself. The contemporary world is living in such an age. The end of the twentieth century is a period abounding in sharp and crucial turns of events, in which something gigantic is dying and something new, colossal, is being born. Whether this epoch will represent a step towards the liberation of people and communities or a new technical barbarity, whether it will degenerate into lower, give birth to higher, forms of life depends on our ability to offer a vision of a new world, a new civilizational alternative.

The hegemony of the old world is not being maintained only through repression, but also through cultural hegemony, the enslavement of consciousness - through the dominant patterns of production, technological and industrial development, patterns of consumption, types of urbanization. These patterns appear to be the only possible, eternal forms, with the appearance of fate itself; a different world seems inconceivable. The destruction of intellectual creativity thus becomes equal to the destruction of the future.

The ability to conceive new visions or to prevent their genesis is becoming the decisive battlefield. We are confronted by the greatest challenge of all - the creation of a knowledge that would be suited to our epoch, its fascinating possibilities and cruel dangers.