Increasingly in our society, one person's common sense is another person's nonsense. This tutorial analyzes the social and cultural centrifugality of our times, the resultant collapse of both common meaning systems and common standards of practical reason in the world of affairs, and what seems to be the growing inefficacy of our institutions in addressing fundamental social problems. Topics include: the intellectual and institutional groundwork of the widespread social fragmentation and individual bewilderment of our society; the emergence and consequences of the politics of identity, the culture of advocacy, and the proliferation of salvational ideologies; the accelerating problem of the "perverse" consequences of well-intended social action, both in the university and in the world of affairs; and the crisis and dilemmas of leadership in our society. Format: tutorial. Prerequisites: Sociology 101. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference given to Anthropology and Sociology majors.