Editorial.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Caddick, Alison
• Date: 01 January 2002

In this issue of Arena Journal, again and again the limits of modernity and the worlds within it--that we have often cherished, sometimes critiqued--are drawn into question. Very little is as it would seem to be, or as many might still hope or believe it to be. We are confronted with the question--'Just what is it that we do cherish?' (The question 'Why should we cherish it?' is less asked, and so much harder to answer.) After a decade of 'globalization', the wars across the globe that mark its darkest moment yet, set us all on edge--will we be swallowed by it? The yawning hole of darker possibilities still is sensed not far off.

Of course 'darker possibilities still' in the West is an ominous reminder of just one thing--our reference point is the Holocaust and the preceding, seemingly ineluctable rise of militaristic fascism. The Holocaust makes us sick at heart. We are appalled that our humanity could have an underside so virulently cruel. For many people of Left, liberal and conservative bent it stands as a signal for restraint. Indeed, rather than as a call to arms for the sake of 'justice', it asks for an expansion of all our capacities, even in the...