We’ve reached a tipping point … indeed we may be past it. It used to be people would strive to insure what they said was essentially truthful. Then we moved into a phase where we stopped trying to relay the truth and simply relayed what we heard, be it truth or not. That was bad enough. But we’ve now moved past that and for many it is perfectly acceptable to advance a known falsehood, provided it fits within a personal objective of personal satisfaction.
And there lies the essence of it — personal satisfaction, either physical satisfaction (sex), or emotional (demanding I get what I want) is now central to people’s lives. There is a deep selfishness ingrained in most people … it used to be constrained by society that shamed people out of expressing it too much. Now it is exalted; “self-expression” (pursuit of the selfish) is the primary objective.
I doubt there’s any retreat from this … I believe we are on the downward slope. Irreversibly so.
