That's been a huge Occidentalist trope (as opposed to Orientalist), the idea that while liberal capitalist societies are technologically impressive they are spiritually bereft.
The irony seems to be that the societies claiming to be spiritually superior are not only technologically inferior but also their supposed spiritual heft is also mostly bullshit when you really get right down to it. This observation is even true within American society. The most religious states (Alabama and Mississippi) are not only economically way behind other states, but also they suffer from a lot of the same "spiritual" problems as any given coastal state. Which is all to say: the claim of spiritual superiority is literally just cope.
That's been a huge Occidentalist trope (as opposed to Orientalist), the idea that while liberal capitalist societies are technologically impressive they are spiritually bereft.
The irony seems to be that the societies claiming to be spiritually superior are not only technologically inferior but also their supposed spiritual heft is also mostly bullshit when you really get right down to it. This observation is even true within American society. The most religious states (Alabama and Mississippi) are not only economically way behind other states, but also they suffer from a lot of the same "spiritual" problems as any given coastal state. Which is all to say: the claim of spiritual superiority is literally just cope.