Perhaps ministers are mulling such questions for New Year's services. Columnist Michael Ventura isn't waiting. He recently sent the century off with spirited, angry thrusts at its spiritual anxieties. The economic climate threatens people's integrity whether they know it or not, he says. Everything from catalog-shopping to the new roof is made possible by cheap Third World labor.
Greed reduces life to money or boredom.
Techno-affluence conflicts with the search for deeper selfknowledge. That conflict causes ambivalence and cowardice. Baby boomers don't like to ask the question, and the kids are suffering for it, Venture says. They want elders, they want wisdom. Don't let their casual pop style fool you.