Modernity is about denying reality and pretending you don't notice

"Our relationships crack up, our marriages break down, we fail as parents and as citizens just like everyone else. But if the result of this is a stultifying silence about things that really matter, we re-double the failure. Refusing to use these words - right and wrong - means a denial of personal responsibility and the concept of a moral choice."

"We talk about people being 'at risk of obesity' instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise. We talk about people being at risk of poverty, or social exclusion: it's as if these things - obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addiction - are purely external events like a plague or bad weather."

"Britain risks creating a society where nobody is prepared to tell the truth about what is good and bad, right and wrong Society has become far too sensitive to peoples feelings with no one prepared to say what needs to be said. Instead, we prefer moral neutrality, a refusal to make judgments about what is good and bad behavior, right and wrong behavior. Bad. Good. Right. Wrong."

"We have seen a decades-long erosion of responsibility, of social virtue, of self-discipline, respect for others, .. of deferring gratification instead of instant gratification."

"Of course, circumstances - where you are born, your neighbourhood, your school, and the choices your parents make - have a huge impact. But social problems are often the consequence of the choices that people make."

He added: "There is a danger of becoming quite literally a de-moralised society, where nobody will tell the truth anymore about what is good and bad, right and wrong."
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[Ha - the truth is "offensive" so no one dares speak it. Reality is banned precisely because it is real and intrudes on comfortable denial, thus it "hurts" the modern.]