THE rottenness, bankruptcy and general degradation of Western societies used to be something only crazed conspiracy theorists like me could see. Yet as the clown car has picked up pace, no doubt even the ‘respectable’ folks out there are finding it harder to ignore the obvious signs that we’re now in Wile E Coyote mode, flapping our arms in a desperate attempt to defy gravity, before gravity inevitably defies us and sends us hurtling to the ground at the bottom of the cliff we just leapt off.