Why do major issues like child abuse, poverty and racism continually plague us? Why can’t we resolve them? George Bryant probes 12 current social problems and offers suggestions for positive progress. Basically, he says, we tend to provide only two-dimensional solutions, ignoring the ‘spiritual’ side of humanity. We are good at attacking the symptoms of social dysfunction but poor at investigating the causes. We need to use three-dimensional thinking and a new kind of politics.