As 2013 blasts off post Mayan apocalypse, the last of our comfortable structures buckle under a new world of feuding technologies, turbulent markets and unremitting political strife. Civil war rages in the Middle East. China's communist leaders prepare for a new era of oppression, rejecting Western democracy the same time they benefit from it. Monstrous storms rip apart our cities, while perpetual showdowns in Washington reinforce what has become a pathological state of dysfunction. The world has never faced greater challenges, and it's easy to feel that we'll be sucked up by the squalling noise rather than working our way …