NONFICTION - May 5, 1991

FUTUREHYPE: The Tyranny of Prophecy by Max Dublin (E. P. Dutton: $21.95; 290 pp.). Karl Marx asserted that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Max Dublin, a Harvard Ph.D., poet and research fellow at the University of Toronto, argues persuasively (in a book that deserves as much popularity as, say, “Future Shock”) that in our complex, technological society, prophecy serves as a sort of religion. It blinds us to the needs of the present by constantly diverting our attention to the future. Dublin writes: “There are all sorts of self-defeating things that false predictions may encourage us to do, but usually the false positions into which they put us will be the result of the fact that, because of the promise inherent in a prediction, we will act irresponsibly in the present.” If you doubt him, look at the billions being spent in Southern California to replace a fraction of the light rail transportation system we have ripped up over the past 50 years.