Woah. You guys have just been on a roll with these perspective-dilating reads. I'll definitely pick this book up.

The interviewee makes an excellent point about the demythification, or mass disenchantment, that's occurred to the secular West. He meant this in regards to religion--our "God of the Gaps" in knowledge of the world has always grown smaller--but I also feel this way about how communism as Marx envisioned it. The revolution that's supposed to sweep across the world and change everything forever... is dead in the water. I still hear from Marxists and socialists of all kinds that the political revolution is imminent, but I feel that the movement isn't there. It's passed.

It's hard to describe what exactly has passed, but the closest thing I can liken the feeling to is participating in a protest. There's almost a tangible electricity in the air. That even though you're walking the same streets you've walked a thousand times before, things are different, there's a momentum. That is completely missing in the Marxist movement.

But I imagine that special quality is an integral part of a faithful believer's day. That must be nice. My "religion" is humanism, and of a daily mindfulness as I can manage it. But it's not the same as a transcendental movement.