Powerful response my good fellow.
I agree, it was much to take in. I simple had to get it out. The issue burned within me over the festive period, especially after this talk I had with my niece.
You capture the terrible dilemma in these tragic modern times. It has all come about ever so slowly that no one has really noticed it coming. Rather like the story of the frog placed in a pan of cold water and is heated up so slowly it does not notice that it is being boiled alive.
The real problem lies in the fact that society had become what is known as a "psychopathic society"- This is a known phenomenon that happens when psychopathic types are in positions of authority. The conditions are gradually created so that "normal" people are pushed into being more psychopathic - meaning less empathic, less caring, forced to choose between doing the right thing and bending the rules in order to make ends meet.
The way I see it, the only way this can be turned around is to create a system that ensures those with psychopathic traits can not get into positions of power. Like we have laws to stop convicted pedophiles working with children, we can have laws to stop psychopaths having position where care and honesty is important. We have the technology to do that today,. A no painful brain scan can reveal a psychopath within an hour. We could have it that any person going into politics etc could volunteer to have their brain scanned for psychopathy traits. I would not recommend that disqualify them but it would at least give the citizen, the voter, the knowledge that this person has no conscience to stop them from doing the wrong thing. Just some thoughts I had.
Thank you @bobreedo you always give thoughtful and wise answers and I always appreciate them.