At the close of the second millennium the West is lost in a crisis of meaning. Needless to say, we have an overabundance of the former, which without the strength and guidance of 'soul' becomes brittle, insecure and destructive.
Teenagers have no enthusiasm for reaching adulthood.
We are beset by consumerism in all aspects of life. In the marketplace of beliefs, whim replaces faith. The vacuum created by the death of the gods leads to Shopping World where the consumer, both passive and restless, seeks consolation for the disappearance of meaning. Carroll holds the cultural and educational elites responsible for furthering our sense of meaninglessness. Reason is rampant and moral thinking wilts, to the extent that a report in the Australian Journal of Biological Sciences in 1982 received almost no comment in the Australian media.