“For a while — a short while — it seemed possible that the twin towers attack and the subsequent war might have jolted the affluent West out of its claustrophobic, neurotic materialist mindset. The massive shock could have liberated us from self-absorbed timidity and jolted us into remembering older values… (However,) the new era is, alas, still some way off.” The essayist is disturbed that “the malingerers, the players of the system, the special-pleaders who renege on clear working contracts, the claimers and blamers who want money for what a sane world would classify as bad luck” are still coming out of the woodwork, seemingly unconstrained by higher aspirations to which the terrorist attacks should have inspired our society. The Times of London