With so much focus on the developing world, it is easy to dismiss the “secular vs. sacred” worldview struggle of the developed world as just another "first world problem". The purpose of this series is to give needed theoretical and practical attention to the far ranging economic, social and political causes and impacts of the West’s identity crisis. The first two weeks will focus on the deeper trends underlying much of the developed world’s present-day crisis. The latter two weeks will illustrate how these play out in the faltering of the European social model as well as the debt and deficit crisis that presently confronts the West.