"If you want to understand what's most important to a society, don't examine its art or literature, simply look at its biggest buildings." In medieval societies, the biggest buildings were its churches and palaces; using Campbell's method, we can assume these were feudal cultures that revered their leaders and worshipped God. In modern Western cities, the biggest buildings are the banks--bloody great towers that dominate the docklands--and the shopping centers, which architecturally ape the cathedrals they've replaced: domes, spires, eerie celestial calm, fountains for fonts, food courts for pews."