THE NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE CIVILIZATIONAL CRISIS

Abstract

The author's starting point is the allegation that the world-wide process of modernization has produced self-contradictory, self-destructive and irreversible effects. One of the symptoms of this civilizational crisis are the new social movements, which can easily disappear as quickly as they have appeared, but the crisis will always reproduce them. Their greatest achievement is the reshaping of the value-system. In regard to the peace movement, the author argues that the notion of peace has to be expounded. Peace does not exist without freedom, political and economic democracy and respect for human rights. Peace must also mean mankind's reconciliation with itself and a different attitude towards technology. The explication of such a concept of peace would have to be based on a shift in scientific paradigm.