The rhetorical battle between modernity and old-fashioned character

Modern values win the rhetorical battle against the past, on behalf of a "softer, gentler society". In substance, modern values equate people with their feelings and demand that only such an equivalence be recognized as ethical. Despite this, real justice and goodness would consist in not treating people so superficially, as if what one sees on the surface is all that should be allowed to exist. To develop depth of character, to be able to express one's self as a whole, one has to look further than fleeting feelings.