The extra pathetic irony about our collective self-loathing is that we hate ourselves in the name of ideals — equality, tolerance, freedom, liberalism, pluralism, democracy, universal human rights, etc. — that we ourselves in the West invented. Not only did we create these ideals but we still embody them in the West (America and Western Europe) better than any society anywhere else on Earth. The resentiks and haters amongst us are availing themselves of our values and then using them against us.