Well, I think he's right to notice that there is a difference in attitudes and even in the broadest sense of world view between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Which is old and which is new is an interesting question, and I almost think that maybe he's got it backwards.
“I have grown in my writing and I care about it now and I know how important it is to write stuff.”
“Thus you are just not because you give what is owed, but because you do what is appropriate to you as the highest good.”