Mia, while I neither can nor do disagree with anything you’ve written here, I do have a serious question to pose: does any other society, or culture, have such a starkly self-critical streak (and, one hopes, sometimes against hope, corresponding capacity for self-correction) as Western culture has shown over the centuries? I don’t need an answer now but take a good long look over human history and see what you can find. If you do find a society with such strong self-criticism, I’ll want to hear all about it! Although, be warned: you will find other cultures which may look that way but, on further inspection, their self-critical mechanism(s) broke down or were silenced.
Someone wrote, “Western civilization was born in the creative tension between Jerusalem and Athens.” Between two ancient societies which each had plenty of space for self-(or divine) criticism. One from its prophets; the other from the vigorous discussions in the agora. It makes sense to me.
Happy hunting!