The advanced industrialized countries of the world crossed over the threshold of the second millennium beaming with self- satisfaction and confidence in their futures; however, like the bubbles in a glass of New Year's champagne, their effervescence soon began to fade. Societal stumbles encountered along the way to the future became increasingly visible. Social inequality, already on the increase, accelerated. Social mobility stagnated, and the educated classes increasingly choose to marry only those with the same credentials, further cementing social class divisions. Economic growth has been slow over the past several decades with a recent exception in the United States, leaving many people unable to obtain jobs for which they have been trained and causing sustained periods of underemployment and unemployment. Political distrust of institutions continues to spread, underpinning a series of social movements, such as those manifested in the upsurge of extremist political parties and even paramilitary militias that engage in violence. Recently, such movements have produced two electoral surprises: Brexit (the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union) and the election of President Trump in the United States. The terrorist attacks on 9/ 11 in 2001 against the twin towers of New York— along with a number of other targets since then such as trains in Madrid, buses in London, and nightclubs in Paris and elsewhere— have brought home, most dramatically, the shrinking of the world. While some would style the world as flat, we clearly have discovered some rather deep valleys. In many advanced industrialized countries, one sees at the community level the rise of rust- belt cities, depressed rural areas, and minority ghettos. Suicide, both formal and informal (in the form of deaths due to opioids), have become increasingly common, lowering advances in average life expectancy for the first time in a century. Meanwhile, those who live longer frequently find themselves socially isolated. Social capital shrinks and hatred of the other expands. Buoyant societal moods of self- satisfaction and self-confidence have been replaced by a troika of despair: alienation, powerlessness, and social isolation.

These changes reflect disruptions in the previous equilibrium that advanced industrialized societies have enjoyed for almost a century. We have to develop a new paradigm that synthesizes existing social science theories to both recognize and solve these disruptions that reflect adaptive problems.