The potential is certainly present, and so the question boils down to: is the system that's in place able to accomplish all these transformative changes--including transforming itself along the way? For this is the catch in euphoric expectations--let's call it Catch-20, in a nod to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, in which the request to be relieved of duty due to insanity is proof of sanity.

Catch-20 is the system has to first transform itself as the means to accomplish all the wonderful things, but it's incapable of transforming itself due to the vested interests who will move heaven and earth to keep it locked in its current configuration. The euphoric expectations are based on the belief that the system as it is today is perfectly capable of transforming the economy, society and daily life.

But if we examine the system as a system, stripped of ideology and other belief structures, we find a system of contradictory dynamics that are largely impervious to political change, technology or the market. In other words, the forces that are aligned to transform life have little purchase on the system dynamics that are operating beneath the surface euphoria.