estern civilization is a departure from
the civilized norm. It is really a measure of the extent to which
western civilization itself is disintegrating.

The revolution in science and technology, mass production and the
distribution of goods and services through a mass market have put
acquisition and accumulation of goods and services as a life-goal to a
severe test. Until the early years of the present century no
civilization had provided affluence for more than a small fraction of
its population. The vast majority consisted of slaves, serfs, war
captives, and tenant farmers. Only an exceptional few were in a position
to live in comfort or luxury on unearned income. As each civilization
matured, ownership of land and capital diverted the flow of consumer
goods and services into the coffers of a diminishing proportion of the
total population. The vast majority lived at or below the subsistence
level. General affluence was a goal that was talked about and dreamed
about, but there was no way to test its practical effects on the
population as a whole.

Under conditions presently existing in many parts of the West, millions
of individuals and families following the utilitarian principles of
acquisition and accumulation have secured and kept an abundance of goods
and services in strict accordance with utilitarian principles. Yet they
have not been and are not happy.

Quite the contrary, in many cases they are unhappy, particularly in the
second and third generations of affluent family life. This is notably
true in the United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland and other parts of
western Europe. It is true to a lesser degree in New Zealand and
Australia.

Millions of families in these countries, with all their possessions,
fail to enjoy peace and happiness. On the contrary, they are so acutely
unhappy that many of them have come to regard acquisition and
accumulation as a sterile rat-race. Consequently multitudes of people,
young and old, have turned their backs on civilization, separating
themselves from their affluent homes with their glut of consumer goods
to live at non-civilized or pre-civilized levels. These individuals are
avowedly anti-civilization in so far as its material incentives are
concerned.

Similar attitudes were expressed in previous civilizations. Socrates
went barefoot through the streets of Athens. Diogenes lived in a tub.
Uncounted numbers of Indian holy men and early Christians rejected all
affluen