In Search of Achilles

by Marco van den Berg Scholten

Summer 1990. The Berlin Wall has fallen. In Europe, Communism has called for the priest to say the last rites. Outside in the streets and on the Plazas, the energy is bubbling over from the blind euphoria and the intoxication of victory. Capitalism has come out of the systems war as the ultimate winner. Society is about to spiral upward toward more prosperity and freedom for all. The free market provides the lone left blueprint for a life of purpose. But does it . . . ? As the sun of plenty shines brighter, the shadows grow darker. And while his professors teach post-modernist dogmas, Johan van Geesteren, a young aristocrat on the threshold of society, is searching for meaning. Where have all the virtues gone? What has happened to dignity and restraint? Where are the good people? The speed and dominance with which ‘the New Religion’ is encroaching on public space makes him feel threatened. Instinctively he withdraws. But can he reach out to his friends? Is there still space for Old World-values? When his friends embark on a dangerous roller coaster, Johan is forced into their stream of destruction, and he needs all the discipline from his upbringing to remain standing. Will he be able to hold on to his ideals? Is there any truth left out there? Or is the enlightenment project of the Occident, like a modern-day Rome, about to burn to ashes?

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