The novelty of our century was the idea that not only freedom was good, but any framework is evil. Any sort of responsibility placed on a free person by outside world was declared unlawful. And ultimately, the only valid deciding factor was the whim of the moment.


I disagree. I gather you haven't read any [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Sade|de Sade] (June 2, 1740 \ufffd December 2, 1814):

His is a philosophy of extreme freedom, unrestrained by ethics, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Much of his writing was done during the 29 years he was incarcerated. His reputation, although much based on rumor, for sexual cruelty led to the term "sadism" being named after him.


Not that I accept your premise that [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertine|libertinism] is rampant these days, but even if it were - the ideas are not new.

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.