Brian is the embodiment of the personalized evil that civilized people will have to deal with for the next generation.He derives his own self-worth from directing hatred toward those he’s been told are guilty of some particular fault, whether it be a personal indifference toward “the environment” or “the children” or some approved victim group. He has no clue as to how cheaply his supposed virtue is bought. He only knows that he has paid for his indulgence of hatred with his feelings for the right causes. At least when the popes of the sixteenth century sold indulgences they required payments of real money, not sentiments incapable of any accomplishment other than destruction. Perhaps the one good that can come of “cap and trade” is that indulgences can be seen for what they are in a real sense once again, and result in a similar backlash.