NO SYNTHESIS

EVOLVING FROM "A MEDIAEVAL, PRIMITIVE, CRAWLING INFANT OF 1838, TO FIND ONESELF A HOWLING, STEAMING, EXPLODING, MARCONING, RADIUMATING, AUTOMOBILING MANIAC OF 1904 EXCEEDS BELIEF."

WHEN HENRY ADAMS( 1838-1918) WROTE THIS HE FELT THAT HIS AGE WAS "THE FIRST THAT WAS EVER ABSOLUTELY LUNATIC." NEVER IN HIS WILDEST DREAMS COULD HE HAVE FORESEEN OUR AGE OF CELEBRATED HOMEYS AND WHORES, OF SUICIDAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS DRIVEN TO CLAIM PARADISE AS THEY SUBDUE THE INFIDELS ON EARTH.

TENSIONS HAVE ALWAYS MARKED THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS. THE VIRTUE OF COURAGE VS. THE VICE OF MINDLESS AGGRESSION. EPHEMERA VS. EVOLUTION. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PROGRESS OF THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE. HENRY ADAMS ALSO BELIEVED THAT THE "NEAREST APPROACH THE WESTERN WORLD EVER MADE TO AN ... INCARNATION OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE," WAS ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. LIBERALS TODAY, WORSHIP NOT MYSTICISM BUT RATIONALISM, BOTH ATHEISTIC AND SCIENTIFIC AT ITS CORE.

HEGEL (1770-1831) PHILOSOPHIZED THAT HISTORY UNFOLDED THROUGH THE PROCESSES OF THESIS, ANTITHESIS AND SYNTHESIS. HOW WILL OUR FUTURE BE SYNTHESIZED? HENRY ADAMS HOPED THAT A HUNDRED YEARS FROM HIS BIRTH, IN 1938, THREE RATIONAL AMERICANS MIGHT MEET "AND FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE MAN BEGAN HIS EDUCATION AMONG THE CARNIVORES, THEY WOULD FIND A WORLD THAT SENSITIVE AND TIMID NATURES WOULD REGARD WITHOUT A SHUDDER."

NOPE. IT'S 2007, AND THE WORLD STILL SHUDDERS. NO PEACEFUL, PERFECT BLENDING HAS BEEN ACHIEVED. EAST VS. WEST. IS A RAPTURE, AN ARMAGEDDON OR A SECOND COMING JUST OVER THE HORIZON?