"we have succeeded in turning them into a social and civic virtue."

What? "Greed and rapacity and arrogance?"
Perhaps your tongue is lodged firmly in your cheek?
Between poliferating nuclear weapons, increasing deadly bio-warfare programs, "endless war" in the Middle East (courtesy of the US), the out-of-control intelligence/counter-intelligence operatives and the black market profiteering under the guise of "security", pollution by large companies who support the political fat cats that ALLOW destruction of the environment, over-population, genetically modified food that is messing with the food chain and those that feed off it; the LEAST we have to worry about is a NEO impact.

It might be a blessing.