Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
This article will serve as a commentary on the future of Latin America and on some possible alternatives for the problems facing it while taking worldwide issues and problems into account. It does not claim to formulate or reformulate existing theories on the management and dynamics of the global crisis that threaten the world today. It will, however, go into the premises on which our thinking is based and the various levels of distinction used in approaching these global problems.
The basic premise is that the relationship of man in society with nature has progressively deteriorated. Man is an integral part of nature, a fact that is increasingly being ignored. As society has increased in complexity and extent, there has been a growing alienation between man and the natural system of which he is a part. This has resulted in a series of crises between man and nature in areas such as the environment, food, energy, population, and so on, which are only different facets of the global crisis.
1 We are well aware that the terminology we have used in our analysis is distinctive from the accepted sense in which it is generally understood. This is particularly so in the meanings given to “culture” and “civilization.” In any case, anyone who so wishes may identify (1) culture as the ideological-value dimension; (2) civilization as the socioeconomic dimension with all its diverse elements (science, technology, productive systems, administrative structure, and so on), and (3) participation as the political dimension.