In his book, The Twilight of American Culture, Morris
Berman speaks about much more than that. In the first chapter (pp. 14-70), he
lists four signs indicating the collapse of any civilization: (1) accelerating
inequalities of income and wealth, (2) diminishing returns on solutions to
problems, (3) increasing ignorance, and (4) growing spiritual death. He finds
all four signs occurring, to an alarming degree, in Western Civilization as
represented by America.
In our previous essay of April 29, we summarized the accelerating inequalities of income and wealth noted by Morris. Today we will look at what Morris regards as indications of increasing ignorance and spiritual death.