Excerpt from Chapter 1        The Development Of Altruism      What will be our saving grace?   The way in which we raise children will determine whether or not our civilization will survive in the long run. Altruism is the key. Altruism is a developmental process that is dependent on environmental child rear­ing conditions during our formative years. The development of altruism allows us to become persons who are sincerely concerned about others, as well as the world in which we live. Unfortunately, given the continued propensity for authoritarian child rearing practices in our culture, many children are deprived of the op­portunity to develop altruistic tendencies as a developmental stage of emotional growth.   The guilt for this failure of the development of altruistic behavior coming to pass lies in the prevalence of authoritarian parenting prac­tices within our culture. Again, our natural propensity to develop altru­ism is too commonly thwarted by the oppressive, authoritarian way in which so many children are raised.   We stunt the emotional growth of children by striking them; dimin­ishing them, and making them feel that they have a lesser value in this world than us adults. As a result, we produce adults who are only ca­pable of a concern for their own personal needs and wants...adults who are deficient in empathic behavior. These are adults who lack the ability to look beyond their own short-sighted personal concerns; who fail to consider the needs and wants of those around them; and who lack a concern toward the future well-being of the environment in which we live.