A personalized algorithm is a wondrous thing. Our lives are dominated by platforms that use this tool to serve a never-ending stream of content. YouTube, Instagram, Netflix: take your pick. Our whims, good and bad, are catered to and pampered by digital servants whose bustling obsequiousness is matched only by their near-omniscience of our preferences. I, for one, have some gratitude for the brilliant little cyberimps. What other force would be able to tell that the same person who enjoys edits of Gordon Ramsay brutally insulting some stammering young chef for a lack of oregano would also enjoy clips of small children falling off bicycles? The tailoring of content is a gift. And a curse. No two people's feeds are the same. The entire purpose of personalized algorithms is to prey on the unique combination of experiences, fears, and hopes that make you who you are. You get to be god in entertainment isolation, dictating your tastes to an obedient lackey. The idea that perception creates reality has never been more true. Our individualized entertainment feeds are emblems of a society fragmenting and isolating. Contrary to the stereotype, it is those 65 and older who report feeling the least lonely (10%), while that number more than doubles for younger cohorts. Concurrently, political polarization has reached its zenith, with a Gallup poll finding 80% of Americans believe the nation is greatly divided on the most important values. This phenomenon is not new. Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone observed it in 2000. It is continuing to worsen, exacerbated by social media and artificial intelligence. Liberalism as a political philosophy is arguably the most successful framework for a free and prosperous nation, and a framework I adhere to, but liberalism alone cannot create a cohesive and unified society. A bookshelf itself is an excellent thing, but regardless of how sturdy it is, filling the shelves with smut and trashy magazines will not produce wisdom. In a personal context, liberalism, in the words of Tocqueville, turns to an "individual egotism which is the rust of society." This egoism is the root of our cultural crisis. Selfishness, self-absorption, and self-worship are the hollow, twisted fruits of a decaying moral and philosophical tree. Before I proceed, I must preface with a few qualifiers. I believe my Protestant brothers and sisters to be sincere, dedicated, and enthusiastic in their pursuit of a personal relationship with Christ. I respect the arguments for various Protestant positions. I furthermore will not deny that the Catholic Church has had and will continue to have struggles and failures so long as men are sinful. The point I'm making is not a theological argument; it is a social one. I further admit that consequentialism does not determine truth. My point is this: Catholicism offers the best remedy to egoism, particularly in the world of today. The Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura, the idea that the Bible is the sole inerrant source of authority and a major premise underpinning the Reformation, seems to have had dangerous consequences. Sola Scriptura taken practically means that the individual reader's interpretation of the Bible becomes doctrine. This leads to statements like Texas Democrat James Talarico's belief that the visitation of the Angel Gabriel justifies abortion. The church post- Reformation has divided and subdivided a hundredfold, leading to vast differences among believers. The rejection of authority and the emphasis on personal revelation have produced a sort of theological relativism that divides not just Protestant and Catholic, but Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, Lutherans, and a hodgepodge of nondenominational churches. The number of Christian denominations has increased from roughly 2,000 in 1900 to 50,000 in 2025; our societal fractures echo our theological ones. Young people today seem to be realizing the need for the structure and certainty so lacking in our century. Putting egoism and individualism aside requires submitting to an authority above oneself. That authority is manifested on earth in the institution, tradition, and authority of the Catholic Church. In contrast to many Protestant services, Catholic liturgy by its very form exists to direct man's attention toward God. Music takes place behind the congregation, minimizing distractions; the homily lasts usually around ten minutes rather than a forty-minute soliloquy by an individual, with the majority of Mass oriented on the consecration of the Eucharist. It is by this eternal sacrifice, as Aquinas notes, that 2,000 years of the Church are unified. It was in the unity of the Church that Tocqueville believed gave rise to the "latent propensity which urges them [Americans] unconsciously towards Catholicism." And it is this exact sacrifice that is the solution to our selfishness, isolation, and egoism.