The standard that a society should actually embody its own professed principles is a utopian one, in the sense that moral principles contradict the way things really are --- and always will be. How things really are --- and always will be --- is neither all-evil nor all-good but deficient, inconsistent, inferior. Principles invite us to do something about the morass of contradictions in which we function morally. Principles invite us to clean up our act; to become intolerant of moral laxity and compromise and cowardice and the turning away from what is upsetting: that secret gnawing of the heart that tells us that what we are doing is not right, and so counsels us that we'd be better off just not thinking about it.
ethics morality society utopia
[O]ne person's 'barbarian' is another person's 'just doing what everybody else is doing.
barbarians civilization culture double-standards morality normalcy perception perspective prejudice society standards
With genius, as with beauty -- all, well almost all, is forgiven.
beauty exemptions forgiveness generosity genius leniency social-norms society
The likelihood that your acts of resistance cannot stop the injustice does not exempt you from acting in what you sincerely and reflectively hold to be the best interests of your community.
bravery change resistance society trial
Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.
addiction aesthetics consumerism photography society
Most people in this society who aren't actively mad are, at best, reformed or potential lunatics.
people society
The United States is a generically religious society. That is, in the United States it's not important which religion you adhere to, as long as you have one.
religion society