The topic below was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

Our current world of globalization, technological advancement and the widening schism between rich and poor stems from the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution is arguably the most important historical watershed in human history. So why did it happen in eighteenth-century England? Furthermore, how come the unprecedented economic growth it produced only served to make parts of the world even poorer?

I've come to kibitz with you again.  Because I've been having these visions lately, and none of them are exactly "softly creeping."  It's more like they're harshly pouncing on me, usually about 4 AM when my ability to shed fear is at its weakest, leaving me sweating and staring at the dark ceiling.

Blame it on my own pessimistic tendencies.  Blame it on my bedtime reading.  Blame it on all the rather depressing essays I've been writing.  Blame it on Bush (that's my favorite).  But I keep visualizing our whole world balanced on a tightrope, and that rope is starting to sway.