THE MORAL SOCIETY: A Rational Alternative to Death

According to this intense secular adaptation of the social ideas of Teilhard de Chardin, the future depends on the cultivation of ""awareness,"" which equals morality, as opposed to the pursuit of pleasure. Hedonism, bureaucracy, and ideology have corrupted democracy; ""science and technology have automated the production of wealth"" -- this without any factual evidence. Ethical persons must join to make an Ethical State which can shape a Moral Society, ensuring evolution rather than entropy, and eventual expansion to other galaxies. This notion is developed with blueprints and tautologies. A moral man is ""always a generalist,"" while ""immoral adults are never creative""; the Guardians of the state will be scientific generalists with at least eleven bachelors degrees (Garcia is a generalist with five bachelor's degrees). Industry will remain capitalistic, the executive power will be expanded, each official will be a male-female team inasmuch as women lack ""personal morality"" while men lack ""social morality."" Meanwhile there is the threat of the New Left's revolt against reason, which may provoke right-wing counterreaction. Ironically, Garcia shares the New Left premise that the U.S. is a cyberneticized Babylon full of fat selfish sybarites -- and there is further irony in the protofascistic side of his own ideal state, based on ""organic principles"" with political parties banned and a moralistic mass-movement base. As an end in itself Garcia's ""awareness"" lacks content; his social vision remains eclectic, with affinities ranging from Opus Dei and leftwing Christian Democracy to Moral Rearmament to Veblen (not that such references appear). Some will find the book merely crankish, others vicious, still others uplifting.