Let's not conflate people being clean because the government is notoriously lethal and is tracking your social standing with people being clean because they've been taught from a young age to be respectful to the environment.

Authoritarian 'harmony' doesn't imply any sort of longevity.

Sure. But make sure you also conflate freedom with people dying from the opioid epidemic, the huge drug problem in San Francisco and homeless encampments everywhere and the complete and utter failure to build one rail line connecting LA and SF.

All of these problems occur because the US values individual freedoms over central authority. You will note:

Freedom doesn't imply any sort of longevity Either.

The problem with the west is that freedom is viewed as a sort of moral truth.

People assume that an authoritarian society is bad and that a society with freedom is good.

The truth is far more complex. What I say is an aspect of the truth, as is what you say.

What truly should absolutely never be conflated is the idea that one of these truths overrides the other.

Benjamin Franklin said it best imho: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

A lot of the modern emphasis on explaining away people's behaviour as an inevitable outcome of their poverty/race/culture/history (depending on who you ask) is a leading cause of a lot of the problems we see imho.

One of the core beliefs our society is based on is that God gave us free will so we can make choices. While some degree of corrective was maybe necessary as current and historical wrongs do impact us today, it has gone too far imo. Someone at some point of time has to break a cycle by making a choice to be a better person.