Cultural conflicts, such as those that trouble American society today, may sometimes appear to be less than serious squabbles between intellectuals who have nothing better to do. It is regrettably true, of course, that intellectuals have the tendency to think of themselves and their interests in grandiose terms control of the English department, say, looks more important than control of the world's energy supplies. Yet culture is not a peripheral matter culture is the way in which a society understands itself. A society that no longer understands itself will be unable to act coherently on and problems facing it, including those that may superficially seem remote from cultural issues. Every human society must achieve a measure of consensus concerning two fundamental questions 'Who are we?' and 'How are we to live together?' Culture embodies the consensus as to how these questions are to be answered. This consensus will never be unanimous, but when it breaks-down in a massive way, the survival of the society is threatened. Both social philosophers and social scientists have long agreed that there can be no order in human affairs without such a consensus. Some analysts have argued that a modern society no longer needs this, that it can dispense with a common morality and can function on the basis of rational self-interest expressed in various contractual arrangements. Morality is then replaced by procedure. Such a society would resemble a gigantic traffic system. In modern urban traffic most people stop at red and go at green, not because they have deep moral convictions about this behavior, also not because they are afraid of the traffic police rather, they do so because it is in their common interest. This very image suggests the weakness of a traffic-system notion of society: The average driver will obey the traffic laws in the normality course of events he will break them in an emergency (say, he must get to a hospital quickly). By analogy, a 'normal' society can function to some extent like a traffic system—and 'normal' means a state of affairs when no grave external or internal perils exist. When such perils appear, however, the contractual regulation of the many interests is not enough some moral claim to solidarity and sacrifice will become necessary. Otherwise the contractual procedures will break down: In an emergency everyone drives through a red light. The word 'squabbles' in Paragraph 1 probably refers to______.