A well articulated piece, but I don't agree with the idea of failure. I don't see it as failure if your integrity sends ripples into the world and provides generational change. Even if you are unaware of those ripples your self. It is and always has been the individuals with integrity that have propagated social evolution. Socrates is but one example.

Social paradigms don't happen on the flick of a switch, they happen over a slowly shifting gradient. Even if paradigms are much more rapid now due to technology, there is still a dimension of time.

I think what we are seeing globally is an ideological rift that can only be resolved by a single victorious collective unconscious (by this I mean universal preferences, not to be confused with collective ideology). However this time the battle is not within a single nation, but the global society. As has always been the case, this will involve much bloodshed, as those losing grips on the power they held within their ideology won't give it up quite so easily. But when the ashes settle, a new dawn of humanity will once again rise. Like you, I have much doubt that this will happen in my life time. But, the pace of these things is much faster than even in our parent's generation.