The Problem with Civilization

Whenever I have encountered any kind of deep problem with civilization anywhere in the world— be it the logging of rain forests, ethnic or religious intolerance or the brutal destruction of a cultural landscape that has taken centuries to develop— somewhere at the end of the long chain of events that gave rise to the problem at issue I have always found one and the same cause: a lack of accountability to and responsibility for the world. Václav Havel, in Civilization