Abstract

The Myth of Ecstatic Community

This article presents information on the book "The Greening of America," by Charles A. Reich. This book tries to give an answer to what is for people the most important social question: how can they, citizens of the richest nation in the world, master the machine that has pretty well mastered them, and in so doing reclaim what they call their country--a country of the spirit--from the corporations and government bureaucracies that now usurp its name. According to Reich, the contrast between the professions and the activities of the Welfare State is so obvious and so nauseous that it has provoked revulsion on the part of the class that does the essential administrative tasks required by bureaucratized industry, commerce and government.