[clarkm]

Nick: "It’s a small thing, but symbolically important. Our parents’ generation was never interested in keeping up standards, they wanted to be happy. But of course, the last way to be happy is to make it your objective in life."

Tom: "I wonder if our generation is any better than our parents."

Nick: "Oh, it’s far worse. Our generation’s probably the worst since… the Protestant Reformation, it’s barbaric. But a barbarism even worse than the old-fashioned, straightforward kind. Now barbarism is cloaked with all sorts of self-righteousness and moral superiority."