Yes, things have changed. I would hazard a guess that it has a lot
to do with the erosion of the moral underpinnings of a society and the
diminution of personal responsibility. The liberal, intellectual tradition
that developed after World War II claimed that human beings had
arrived at this perfect state where everybody would be better off if they
were allowed to do their own thing and flourish. It has not worked out,
and I doubt if it will. Certain basics about human nature do not change.
Man needs a certain moral sense of right and wrong. There is such a thing
called evil, and it is not the result of being a victim of society. You are just
an evil man, prone to do evil things, and you have to be stopped from
doing them. Westerners have abandoned an ethical basis for society,
believing that all problems are solvable by a good government, which we
in the East never believed possible.