Campaigner

BOOKS
THE EMERGING
ORDER:
GOD IN THE AGE OF
SCARCITY
by Jeremy Rifkin
with Ted Howard
Putnam
1979
303 pages
$10.00
i
Putting Limits On God
An Americanized version of Iran's only difference is that Islamic fun-
Islamic fundamentalism is being damentalism is a reaction against
assiduously cultivated in the the introductionof science and mod-
United States itself--by all ac- ernization, while the emerging
counts successfully. As the London American fundamentalism is a re-
Economist gleefully observes in an sponse to the end of science." (era-
April 5 cover story, the "United phasis added ed.)
States ... is now experiencing a The Emerging Order presents
vigorous revival of religious be- the theological arguments and exlief,
of a rather special kind .... amines the growth and influence
This new American phenomenon of the group which Rifkin seeks to
... [has] something in common mold into the shock-troops and
with the present trend in the Mos- "militant students" of American
lem world" which could lead to Khomeinism--the "charismatic"
the "totalitarianism of the spirit and e_angelical fundamentalist
which produced the mass-suicide Christian movement. Rifkin's arofJonestown"
and could result in gument is both acute and vicious:
a "spectacular" reorientation in in an era when collapse is imposed
American thinking away from on the world economy, the dislo-
"materialism." cated population must be induced
The most explicit statement of to accept a fervent, "religious"
how this is being done is presented enthusiasm for the apocalyptic,
in The Emerging Order: God in the coming end of science--but this in
Age of Scarcity. Its principal author turn means they must also accept
is Jeremy Rifkin, who, as Fellow the end of God.
of the terrorism-linked Institute Writes Rifkin: "The age of
for Policy Studies, collaborator of expansion, with its faith in unlimthe
Club of Rome, founder of the ited economic growth and the
anti-Constitution Peoples Bicen- governing truths of science and
tennial Commission, and director technology is about to give way
of the spin-off Peoples Business to a new age of scarcity and eco-
Commission, would seem a most nomic contraction .... At the
unlikely convert to Christian fun- same time, we are in the early
damentalism. In a recent inter- morning hours of a secondProtesview,
Rifkin explained his new- tant reformation... [P]opulation
found gift of grace: "There is a size must be stabilized.., emphaprocess
developing here similar to sis placed on decentralized, selfwhat
Khomeini did in Iran. The sufficient communities ... [and]
72 June 1980 / CAMPAIGNER