THE BANK TELLER, by Peter Gabel, cofounder with Michael Lerner of the Politics of Meaning, is a deep exploration of the desire within each of us to overcome our isolation and to see and be seen by the other in a relation of authentic connectedness. Insisting that this desire for "mutual recognition is the very foundation of our social being and is as fundamental in the spiritual realm as the need for food and shelter is in the material realm, Peter Gabel shows how the fear of humiliation blocks our capacity to become fully present to each other and leads us to collectively reproduce an alienated and artificial society that isolates us from one another and from the capacity to fully experience the natural world.

Using this philosophical frame-work to provide new insight into such diverse social phenomena as the Holocaust and the O.J. Simpson trial, Gabel shows how what he calls, "the opening up of desire" requires a fundamental challenge to the cynical, adversarial, and essentially meaningless character of our existing political, legal, and educational institutions, proposing such radical changes as abolition of SAT and the development of a healing-centered rather than a rights-based approach to law. He also advocates a new political strategy, which he calls "creating a parallel universe," arguing for the systematic creation of an alternative social reality that co-exists alongside the dominate competitive, individualistic capitalist marketplace and that invents new forms of work, friendship, and community capable of eliciting and strengthening our confidence in our capacity for empathy and mutual recognition.

PETER GABEL is the son of Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel, and is president of New College of California in San Francisco.

Peter is also associate editor of Tikkun Magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society.

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