Second thoughts on the human prospect

Abstract

Next to writing his own obituary, what every writer would most welcome, I suppose, is a chance to review his own books. To begin with, this would present an opportunity to voice those enthusiasms and extravagances the critics have unaccountably failed to express. But then there is also the possibility of criticizing his own work from a truly privileged position one that makes up for its obvious lack of objectivity by its special access to the writer's intentions, doubts and convictions. Thus I welcome this invitation to review An Inquiry into the Human Prospect a little more than a year after it was written. This is particularly the case because I have no occasion to complain about the reception, or at least the notoriety, given the book. Few things I have written have drawn the attention that was accorded The Human Prospect a fact that should fill me with satisfaction, did I not believe it was largely the result of purely accidental factors. I wrote my Inquiry between July 1972 and August 1973, during a time when, save for international monetary complications, a relative tranquility characterized international relations and most domestic affairs. Then, like a thunderbolt, the Arab-Israeli war broke out in the fall of 1973, followed shortly thereafter by the imposition of the Arab oil embargo