According to the author, most people are able to keep a balance between their present, past and future, despite whatever unhappy memories the past may entail. Nevertheless, this balance seems to have been disrupted within recent years with a specific notion of the past being constantly present. History is no longer simply a progressive notion of heroic tales but rather a history laced with injustice and crime. As a result, many countries are tasked with addressing the burden of these histories. According to Torpey, the introduction of this morbid and depressing form of history is a response to the collapse of a future. He discusses the issues with this situation, including the factors which account for our current concerns with the past. Our nations, deprived of a narrative of progress such as socialism and the nation-state, are lacking direction. The only narrative of progress is the progression of the world into a truly market-based society and yet, as a whole, we lack a collective dream to energize large groups of people due to the influx of individualism over collective visions. Torpey discusses how the collapse of the future can be linked to two declining factors in society, socialism and the nation-state. He states that a society without a vision for a more humane future is doomed to live in the horrors of the past. Without this vision, society is left with a desire to right past wrongs as a way to supplement the vision for a brighter and better future.