The loss of the rational in Western societies can be identified as part of a larger cultural trend that makes such societies more vulnerable, and it has many symptoms ranging from the innocuous to the fanatical. The cult of celebrity, focused on pop artists and athletes, is a more innocent symptom of this wider cultural phenomenon. In some Western societies, faith in purely irrational belief systems has overtaken belief in reli- gions that have moral and rational substance, as well as cul- tural roots. But symptoms such as the decline of interest in science reflect an intellectual decline that might have more.
