To many of these desperately poor people, it was as if we in the mainstream West were unable to see that often we were the authors of our own misfortunes. They were diagnosing a weird kind of social senility. It was a diagnosis that in many ways resembled Innis's conclusion that the West, and particularly the United States, was losing its balance and becoming increasingly blinded by its intense present-mindedness. As a result, it was prone to resort to force to solve its problems.

Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, loc. 24