Moderation In Eric Hobsbawm's The Age Of Extremes

Oscar Wilde wrote in A Woman of No Importance, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess” We go through life, blissfully unaware of the strong presence of excess all around us. Excess, is everywhere. On a daily basis we are confronted with excesses of wealth and of poverty, of greed, of violence, of food, of alcohol and of drugs, and of religious belief. Inspiration, falling in love, conversion experiences, and the most radical transformations that can occur in a human life, are traditionally overwhelming, excessive experiences. Cultural criticism of the last two decades suggests that the current century has been particularly excessive, if the 20th century was, as written as the title of Eric Hobsbawm's book, “the Age of Extremes”,