The times are changing. In predominantly Anglican and Protestant parts of the West, where we lead the way in terms of de-Christianization and ideological self-destruction, swearing by political goals such as “redistribution of wealth,” “affirmative action,” and “reduction of greenhouse gasses,” we used to have a rather condescending attitude towards the alleged evils of Catholicism.
The story goes that, before the Reformation, we competed to appear pious and bought letters of indulgence so as to escape purgatory. This endeavor struck those of us, who were brought up to distrust the papacy, as ridiculous. Confident in our own judgment, we tended to laugh and shake our heads at the calculation and credulity, respectively, of merchant clerics (pardoners) and purchasers. “Honestly, the things people put up with in the Dark Ages!” Today, however, we line up to buy carbon dioxide quotas. The hypocrisy is stunning, as the concept is basically the same: Appearance is everything.
For the purpose of an overview, it makes sense to operate with three prototypes in the given context of human behaviors: (a) the self-absorbed, immature youth who just wants to be “where the action is” but is without any deeper allegiance in life, being too lazy to pursue any paranoid hypotheses, (b) the deeply darkened soul, whose personal style has precluded him from closer bonding and cheerful togetherness, leading him to indulge in violent fantasies of revenge on humanity for its rejection of him, and (c) the reticent person, unsure of his own worth, who renounces his natural life expression, severely hampered by his anxiety, but dreams of a caring community, where he may finally dare to let loose and exchange feelings with others. (Some of the type-b people, unable to socialize on normal terms, may gradually turn delusional and imagine that they are in fact better than others and put into the world to accomplish something greater.)
As to the present state of morality in our society, it would appear that there is no higher standard than “being........