Up the Down Escalator, 2003
Up the Down Escalator argues that pessimism and optimism will form the main fault lines of politics in the early-21st-century. On left and right pessimists bemoan the collapse of traditional sources of identity, community and authority. Optimists on the other hand point to innovation and technology, globalization and education, democracy and self-government as grounds for hoping that we can use our capacity for collective problem solving to meet the challenges we face.