Something Went Out Of Us All In The West

May Sarton's book The House by the Sea is a journal she kept in 1974-5. I haven't read it, but a friend is rereading it and sending me quotes.
Thursday, Dec. 5, 1974:

At all ages we are learning how precarious life is, as it slowly penetrates consciousness that we live in a dying civilization. It was dreadfully borne in on me when the UN allowed Arafat, a holster showing under his shirt, to speak, and so sanctified the most brutal terrorist organization in the world. At that moment something went out of us all in the West. Trust that the generality of nations would stand, at least theoretically, for justice under law?... Now the truth is out--there is no court of higher appeal, no public generality to express revolt. We are all in the same boat and the boat is commanded by thugs.

She quotes Paul Johnson "The Age of Terror" in the New Statesman (November 29, 1974)

"Here we come to the essence of the argument. No state throughout history has had completely clean hands. What marks the progress of civilization is the systematic recognition of laws, the identification and punishment of crime, and the reprobation of the offender. A civilized society is one which sees evil in itself and provides means to eliminate it, where the voice of conscience is active. . . . We need not despair at the devastating events of our times so long as we retain the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, between law and disorder, between justice and crime, and proclaim these distinctions from the roof-tops.
"The tragedy of the U.N. is that the distinctions have been first blurred, then wholly abandoned; and that its judgements are now delivered not according to any recognized set of principles, however inadequate, but solely in response to the pressures of political and racial groupings. Racialism is condemned in South Africa but applauded in Uganda; and the fruits of aggression are denied or blessed according to the race and political leanings of those to whom they accrue. Thus the UN has become a kind of kangaroo court; far from protecting international order, it undermines it. Not even the wretched League of Nations gave a welcome and a platform to Hitler."

The boat is commanded by thugs:

incredibly, our so-called Human Rights laws, and our enviable history of religious tolerance, mean that foreigners preaching death and destruction to our way of life are allowed to stay here because their own countries won’t tolerate such evil.”

The identification of crime-

French media have openly stated that they will cover up the true extent of the violence. And the French Constitutional Council recently passed a law criminalizing the reporting of acts of violence by anyone other than professional journalists.

Government leaders no longer acting on principle, but in response to pressure from political and racial groupings:

Democrats are bringing legislation to the floor this week to pay Guam citizens for the crimes committed against them by members of the Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II!

I could spend all morning finding more links to illustrate May Sarton's prescience. It would take all morning not because it would be hard to find, but because it would be hard to quit.