Hidden from public sight and mind today are invisible crises that threaten our democracy and existence even more than the crises we know about - or think we know about.

These invisible crises include the promotion of practices that drug, hurt, poison, and kill thousands every day; cults of violence that desensitize, terrorize, and brutalize; the growing siege mentality of our cities; widening resource gaps and the most glaring inequalities in the industrial world; the costly neglect of vital institutions such as public education and the arts; and media-assisted make-believe image politics corrupting the electorial process.

The contributors to this volume - exploring such unattended crises, analyzing why they are hidden, and focusing on the increasing concentration of culture-power that keeps them from view - maintain that a profound general crisis of social vision, public communication, and representative government underlies all of the invisible crises.