A THREAD IN THE LABYRINTH is the explanation of what make a modern person different from a primitive savage, a 17 Century th aristocrat and every person who ever lived before. The difference is in the vital ideas that define the perceptions and awareness of each individual:
(1) The Reality of Size is a modern awareness about extreme dimensions: that Little Things in the physical world are much, much smaller, and Large Things are far, far larger, than we could ever imagine.
(2) The End of Common Sense is the widespread perception that our world is not what it seems, that there is an entire reality hidden from human senses. The result is that common sense is no longer reliable.
(3) The Science Idea and Universal Ignorance is about a modern conceit concerning science, the false impression that human experts can explain everything. A a modern person becomes a neoprimitive, holding an idea that is little more than modern superstition. Universal Ignorance is its corollary, because there is now a great deal to be ignorant about.
(4) Letting Loose the Demons reprises deep human fears lurking in the shadows since prehistory. Its modern form is the idea that in our incomplete understanding of spectacular science, and in the misuse of science by fools, we play with a loaded gun. Danger is afoot.
(5) The Idea of Natural Catastrophe is a theme from mythology, magic and religion: "The End of the World," usually tied to a Judgment Day. People now know the end of our world is not fantasy, and the catastrophe that will cause it is not supernatural.
(6) The End of Wilderness is the end of the perception that one area or another of the Earth was unexplored, undiscovered or unknown; the wilderness was always there. Now the highest mountains and darkest jungles are visited by tourists, and GPS technology has eliminated the concept of being lost.
(7) The Health Fantasy is a convergence of three beliefs: by living, eating and exercising right a person can live for a long time; all diseases can be cured; life can be lived without pain. Two are wrong, but each is a part of us.
(8) The Uncertainty Idea results from loss of certainty about time, something every person who lived before 1905 knew, a confidence about reality upon which mankind smugly relied for 10,000 years. Now time itself is not certain, so nothing is for sure.
(9) Universal Information is the idea that everyone has access to all information about everything. It is false, but part of a modern world view, a perspective that has changed or has been created by the information explosion.
(10) The Idea of Change is the realization that the world is dynamic, and that change is inevitable, uncontrollable and unstoppable. We are not sure what will happen next.
(11) The American Democracy Idea is the notion of a constitutional government based not on exercise of power by the people, but on its control. Power in government cannot be trusted, even when it is the power of the people.
(12) Political Failure - Payback is a fundamental failure of American democracy, where, for all practical purposes, there is no majority agreement about anything. Winners win everything, losers lose. Then the losers wait their turn.
(13) The First World War Idea is the vague, elusive, yet perceptible awareness that the intellectual tradition of two millennia was wrong; perhaps civilization does not work.
(14) The New Economics of Credit and Waste is the awareness of the new relationship of government as money lender for an economy built on credit and waste.
(15) The Israeli Warrior is an unexpected change from two millennia of the Jew as scapegoat for every ailment of society. Then came Israel with its violence and dominance in the Arab Wars. The Israeli warrior now stands for the power possessed by any people to rise from oppression. In addition, there are unformed Emerging Vital Ideas: the new idea of Women and new ideas about War, Equality, the new idea of the Individual ,with the isolation and disappearance of passion that attaches to it, the idea of Spaceship Earth, and the Return of Tribes.