Things Might Go Right: Prospects for Peace and a Better Life in an Age of Globalization and Specialization

Freedom of the Press is more than a slogan journalists use when they want to report a juicy scandal. A free press may put butter on your bread, or even help you get the piece of bread. "Nice guys finish last" is a saying that formerly had some validity, but it is becoming less true all the time. Nice guys are now more likely to come out on top. Terrorism will be controlled only when more people in all parts of the world are involved in the search for peace and a better life. New opportunities for them to become involved are now opening up. These ideas emerge from a sociological analysis of how we get the pleasures and satisfactions nearly everyone in the modern world wants. Increasingly, such expectations can be satisfied only if we cooperate with other people-many of whom are very different from ourselves. The complexity of modern societies also requires that more and more people assume specialized roles and that these specialists work together regardless of national, ethnic, religious, or other differences. The future belongs to those who are best at cooperation and conflict resolution.

W. Phillips Davison is Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Sociology at Columbia University. He has taught at Princeton University, MIT and American University and has been a senior research staff member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Rand Corporation. He and his wife divide their time between Washington DC and Berkshires, happily receiving visits from shoals of children and grandchildren.