Sociologist and author Philip Slater sets out to provide a unifying theory for the global cultural change now taking place, to ease the inevitable discomfort in living through rapid tran-rnsition, and to encourage adaptation. The book uses the metaphor of a caterpillar transforming to a butterfly to describe the cultural change we see around us. The process begins as tiny ima-ginal cells start to appear in the caterpillar's body. At first, these are rejected by the caterpillar's immune system; but eventually there are so many that they defeat the immune system and a butterfly emerges. The same is true of cultural change. When old cultural assumptions are challenged the innovative ideas are not seen as mere novelties but as a social evil and are attacked by traditionalists.
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