"There is a profound difference between this cynicism and a methodological skepticism which rightly asks for some reason to believe that the world can be different. Much of this book is a response to the skeptic. But it will never satisfy the cynic, who holds with religious intensity the view that nothing fundamental can be changed. Pointing to the terrible crimes that have been committed in the name of social change, and relying on the disappointments most of us have felt when we gave ourselves to social movements or religious or spiritual traditions that promised transformation but actually reproduced some of the distortions of the past, the cynical wisdom of our age insists that to be sophisticated is to know in advance that no attempts to change the world could possibly work, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is necessarily a fool, or dangerous. Yet I insist on the possibility of possibility. In place of a world based on cynicism and the frenetic pursuit of narrow, material self-interest, I believe that it is possible to move toward an expanded concept of self-interest that recognises that our most fundamental survival needs can best be achieved in a world that attends to ethical and spiritual concerns. The selfishness I critique is a misplaced, short-term self-interest that actually runs counter to our own best long-term self-interest."
. The Politics of Meaning : Restoring Hope and Possibility in an Age of Cynicism. (ISBN 0-201-15489-7)
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