ABSTRACT
The processes of modernisation brought about Modernity. It is a social condition with which we are all too familiar. But modernisation will inevitably progress – continuous change is an endemic part of modernity as such. Most of us realise that we will have to leave behind the modern conditions we know, e.g. the well-functioning welfare states and advanced industrial societies of Scandinavia. There are those who claim they know what is going to replace it: economists, sociologists, theologians. And often they find an audience more than willing to listen to and believe them – it seems that the more complex the societal transformations gets, the stronger the desire for simplicity, order and predictability. Hence the flourishing market for false prophets (all prophets are false), regardless of whether they are traditional Marxist ‘scientists’, modern market analysts or mysterious new age metaphysists. But the future does not grow according to any plan planted in a soil of social conditions. Society, like knowledge, is an innovative system, not a closed mechanical system. The future is continuously shaped anew – and always arrives only day by day. But on the other hand, every day.
