Abstract:

More than a decade ago, the avant-garde American composer, Philip Glass, released a film that featured a lengthy barrage of dizzying, frenetic images—cars racing along congested freeways, buildings being constructed and demolished, assembly lines spewing out new products. An elegy to a society run amok, the film was entitled, Koyaanisquatsi, a Native American Hopi term meaning ‘life out of balance’. The theme of society both out of balance and out of control is omnipresent today. It is especially apt in describing our relations with the natural world which call for a fundamental shift in our values and institutions.

Author: Michael M'Gonigle