First, in ancient Greek, it meant a transient moment, a point of decision. Civilization without crisis means not harmony, but morbidity. Therefore, crisis in its meaning of transition signifies change in the paradigm of a given culture, a transition from classicism to baroque, for example. It is not accidental that the twentieth century brings a feeling of the fragility and insecurity of the world. After another critical change in history we have lived at a crossroads.
History knows at least three such critical changes.
The first one was the advent of written language, which spurred forward historical consciousness and entailed the appearance of the first ancient civilizations. The second one was the Gutenberg epoch, which brought written language to the broad masses and was one of the main factors in forming the picture of the world in the modern age. The third one was the scientific and technical revolution of the twentieth century, which developed new communication technologies for the proliferation of culture. Audio and video facilities created not only new quantitative, but first of all new qualitative possibilities for cultural transformations, thus generating a new spiritual situation. One of the innovations was the ousting of the word as a medium for Logos by the word as a means for suggestion.