The international ecologist-philosopher-politician, Rudolf Bahro examines the headlong, mindless path into the abyss that culture is taking, through bankrupt economic, political and philosophical attitudes and policies, and its historical roots. This work analyzes the extent of the developed world's commitment to consumption economics, and how radical but necessary changes in the world can come about. It addresses both the macro-scale of world organizations and the grass-roots level of people and their lives and beliefs, offering a blueprint for the evolving of a new sustainable global society on planet earth. The author maps the route by which a new civilization may be built, from the bottom up, by the users of it - people. Bahro's ideas cover social, historical, political, environmental and spiritual dimensions. This book is also available in an unabridged version, translated directly as it was in German. For libraries, study groups and those more deeply involved in Green and German politics.