The Pursuit of Power. Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000

Conclusion 387

expectation and reality, if only by encouraging us to expect surprises
—among them, a breakdown of the pattern of the future suggested in
this conclusion. For however horrendous it is to live in the face of un­
certainty, the future, like the past, depends upon humanity’s demon­
strated ability to make and remake natural and social environments
within limits set mainly by our capacity to agree on goals of collective
action.