ABSTRACT
People adhere to the natural division into diagnosis and therapy, interpretation and action. And starting with the first, they arrange the pathological aberrations of their occidental society in two large groups according to their causes and their symptoms: The spiritual and ethical group, and the political, social and economic group. Generally speaking, it is, however, true to say that as the crisis of Western society is total its causes are also extensive and intricate. Reference to the spiritual and moral crisis is therefore an inadequate explanation which must be supplemented by analysing the sociological symptoms of degeneration because both form an interactive entity. The crisis of democracy consists in the dogmatic failure to understand the limitations inherent in the democratic and liberal principle, the resulting spiritual collectivization, the arrogance of vested interests, and the fanaticism of minorities. It consists in the general leveling down which accompanies spiritual collectivization and leads to "plebeianism".
