In this book, Waters examines in detail the context that led him to walk away from national newspapers, and in particular, as he describes it, the moral, cultural and intellectual deterioration of The Irish Times, for which he had worked for nearly a quarter of a century. Widening his focus, he looks at the implications of such drifts for the culture and welfare of the country, and concludes that the particular package of modernity adopted in his native land is deeply flawed and ultimately unsustainable. It is time, he argues, for us to return the dubious gifts with which we have been seduced into self-destruction, and start over again.
