Finding conceptual tools that lend themselves to the creation of consensus is no easier in an age of mass communication, mass transportation or mass education, than it was in earlier less "modern," technology adventurous, times. In fact, as I argue in this dissertation, modernity can be analyzed and experienced as being anathema to those characteristics upon which consensus can be built. This dissertation examines why this is the case and what may be done to ameliorate the worst excesses of modernity while building on its greatest strengths.